This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

Equity Office has been on a roll leasing tenants to Willis Tower ever since Blackstone Group announced a $500M renovation plan for Chicago’s tallest building in February. The latest tenant to sign a lease: ESD. The global consulting engineering firm signed a 47K SF lease and will occupy the entire 53rd floor and half of the 54th floor, starting in June 2018.

ESD’s offices will be near Willis’s tenant-exclusive office amenities, including the planned Altitude Lounge on the 66th and 67th floors. The Telos Group’s Jamey Dix, Maggie Brophy and Joy Jordan repped Equity Office in the lease, while ESD was repped by JLL’s Steve Stratton and Jeff Liljeberg, and CBRE's Greg Witt.

ESD is the fourth high-profile lease in Willis Tower since the renovation plan was announced. Last week, Convene announced it leased 55K SF, its largest footprint outside of New York City. Law firm Schiff Hardin agreed to an extension of its lease and is consolidating its operations to 181K SF across five floors, and the National Restaurant Association is moving its Chicago operations to Willis.

SALES

NKF completed the following transactions:

• Corey Chase repped buyer Brennan Investment Group in the $21M sale-leaseback of a 476K SF industrial property in the Dallas, Texas, area. E. Smith Realty Partners’ Jim Hazard and Brad Struck repped the seller.
• Corey Chase, Sean Fulp, Mark Schuessler and Jeff Miller repped the seller in the disposition of 2501 West Davey Road, a 103K SF office, lab and warehouse space in Woodridge.

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Millennium Properties completed the following transactions:

• Chet Evans was the sole broker in the off-market sale of a 9,800 SF retail center at 121-141 South Northwest Highway in Barrington.
• Brad Thompson was the sole broker in the sale of a 9,667 SF retail center at 110-112 West Park Ave. in Elmhurst.

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Quantum Real Estate Advisors completed the following transactions:

• Chad Firsel and Daniel Waszak repped the buyer in the $2.9M sale of a 6,822 SF single-tenant building at 1790 Scenic Highway/SR 124 in Snellville, Georgia.
• Chad Firsel repped the seller in the $1M sale of a 16K SF, single-tenant retail building at 3359 Chicago Road in South Chicago Heights.

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The Boulder Group’s Randy Blankstein and John Feeney repped both parties in the sale of two single-tenant, net-leased Jiffy Lube locations at 317 West North Street in Kendallville, Indiana, and 640 North Wayne Street in Angola, Indiana. The sale price was $2.4M.

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Interra Realty’s Craig Martin repped both parties in the $4M sale of 7245 North Rogers Ave., a 43-unit multifamily property with a commercial space in Rogers Park.

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Brown Commercial Group’s Mike Antonelli completed the following transactions:

• Antonelli repped both parties in the sale of a 13K SF, four-unit industrial building at 161-167 East St. Charles Road in Carol Stream. The buyer, Ewert Property Holdings, hired Brown Commercial Group to lease part of the space. The seller was a private investor.
• Antonelli repped Real Neon in two industrial building sales — its current 8,176 SF building at 113 Official Road in Addison sold to Mirek Construction. Real Neon expanded its operation with the purchase of a 14K SF building at 226 Adele Court in Villa Park. Tim Reardon of Smothers Realty Group represented Mirek Construction. Jay Farnam and Jeff Janda of Lee & Associates represented the seller of 226 Adele, SVSS.

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CBRE Hotels completed the following transactions:

• Nate Sahn and Douglas Johnson repped Mid-Con Hospitality in the sale of a 99-room Country Inn & Suites Chicago South at 18315 South La Grange Road in Tinley Park to Sky Hospitality. Hawkeye Hotels will manage the property.
• Nate Sahn and Drew Noecker repped Jenna Hotel Investments in the sale of the 291-room DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel South Bend at 123 North Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. in South Bend, Indiana, to United Capital Corp.

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SVN | Chicago Commercial’s Wayne Caplan and Lee French repped the seller in the $4.1M sale of a 15K SF multi-tenant commercial condo property at 655 West Irving Park Road.

LEASES

Darwin Realty’s Mandy Lewandowski repped Welbic III Broadview 21 in its 47K SF lease to Printing Arts at 2105 West 21st St. in Broadview. The lease represents an expansion for Printing Arts, which occupies an adjacent building.

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Lee & Associates’ Tom Condon repped Ice Mobility and Cushman & Wakefield’s Keith Puritz, Brett Kroner and Eric Fischer repped Industrial Property Trust in a full-building, 99K SF lease at 610 Schelter Road in Lincolnshire. Ice Mobility is relocating to the property from Vernon Hills in an expansion.

FINANCING

Berkadia’s Paul Matusiak arranged $70.2M in construction and permanent financing for the multifamily portion of Wheeling Town Center. Matusiak secured the Section 221(d)(4) HUD-insured loan on behalf of WTC Residential Development.

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Wool Finance Partners’ Martin Siegel arranged $1.1M in non-recourse financing for the acquisition of a five-unit multifamily property at 2701 North Albany Ave. in Logan Square. The asset will be managed by Eagle National Management.

HIRES/PROMOTIONS

Aries/Conlon Capital hired Joe Perry as senior vice president in the firm’s originations team, focusing on originating non-recourse bridge and permanent debt transactions for the refinance or acquisition of hotel, self-storage, retail, office, industrial, multifamily and healthcare properties nationwide.

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GK Development promoted Evan Shtulman to director of development-leasing and hired James Kholamian as a development leasing rep.

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Ginsberg Jacobs hired Kimberly Elliott, Bonnie Merkt, Hannah Needham and Zenia Salles to bolster the firm’s growing telecommunications practice. Based in Chicago and Texas, the new hires will represent Verizon and other large wireless carriers and tower companies that install and manage network equipment across the U.S.

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JLL hired Debbie Murphy as executive vice president in the firm’s corporate solutions business. Murphy comes to JLL from Huron, where she was chief marketing officer.

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Duke Realty promoted Steve Schnur to senior regional executive vice president. Schnur will have the additional responsibility of overseeing the company’s East and West regions, while continuing to lead and manage its Midwest region.