This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

GEM Realty Capital completed its acquisition of Orrington Plaza in Evanston last week. The sale of the 20-story building, the tallest in the north suburb, was first announced in April. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but it is believed the building is selling for $91M.

The sellers are a partnership of Golub & Co. and Investcorp, which bought the building for $61.1M in 2013. Golub will retain an ownership stake in Orrington Plaza and will continue to operate, manage and lease the building.

A Golub team led by Adam Short negotiated the transaction. The sellers were represented by CBRE's Paul Lundstedt and Dan Dueter.

SALES

Essex Realty’s Brian Kochendorfer, Brian Karmowski and Troy Beebe were the sole brokers in the $2.7M sale of Mayfield Apartments, a 52-unit garden apartment development in Valparaiso, Indiana.

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Kiser Group’s Tanius Stamper completed the following transactions:

• Stamper represented the buyer and seller, E. Pearson, in a $450K sale of 341 North Menard and 5233 West Potomac in Chicago.
• Stamper represented the buyer, McKenna, and seller, Atef Menias, in a $250K sale at 1650 Harbor Ave. in Calumet City.
• Stamper represented the buyer, Sunshine, and the seller, Leonard Tate, in a $250K sale at 1765 State St., Calumet City.

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Entre Commercial Realty’s Mike and John Gazzola assisted IST America in the $314K acquisition of a 4,181 SF industrial condo at 125 Capista Drive in Shorewood. This acquisition was a sale-leaseback with PFB Center. Seller Inland Contractors, a local electrical contractor, will remain as a tenant. The long-term use for the unit will be for expansion of IST’s U.S. operations.

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First Western Properties’ Paul Tsakiris, Gene Hart and Melsi Bifsha represented the buyer in the acquisition of a six-unit multifamily property at 3042 West Cullerton in Douglas Park.

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NAI Hiffman’s John Cash, Art Burrows, David Haigh and Steve Chrastka were the sole brokers in the sale of InterPark Corporate Center, a 12-building, 165K SF single-story office complex at 8601-23 West Bryn Mawr and 8600-22 West Catalpa in Chicago. Jonathan Berger of Berger Asset Management bought the office complex from AREI and will renovate and reposition the properties.

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Millennium Properties’ Michael Mintz and Brad Thompson facilitated the sale of 1344 and 1400 South Karlov and 7742 South Colfax in Chicago. The properties contain 10 recently updated apartment buildings, all of them two- and three-bedroom units.

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Greenstone Partners represented the seller of Park St. Claire, a two-tenant inline retail center at the corner of Higgins and Meacham roads in Schaumburg.

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Fulton Grace Realty’s Henry Lazerow represented the buyer in the $530K sale of a three-unit apartment building at 1634 North Campbell in Chicago. KW Commercial’s Manny Regalado represented the seller.

LEASES

ML Realty Partners completed the following transactions, totaling nearly 600K SF in lease footprint:

• Menasha Packaging Co. — 7770 and 7800 West 71st St., Bridgeview.
• Promac — 1155 Timber Drive, Elgin.
• Music & Arts Center, Division of Guitar Center Stores — 905 Irving Park Road, Itasca.
• Mark Andy — 201 West Oakton, Des Plaines.
• Key — 1905 South Mount Prospect Road, Des Plaines.
• Metropolitan Warehouse & Delivery — 14503 South Gougar Road, Lockport.

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NAI Hiffman completed the following transactions:

• Mark Moran, Steve Connolly and Brett Tomfohrde represented Intralot in a 41K SF lease at 575 West Crossroads Parkway in Bolingbrook. The landlord is GLP.
• Moran, Connolly and Tomfohrde represented sublessor Columbus McKinnon Corp. in a 38K SF lease with Talley at 2143 Internationale Parkway in Woodridge. Talley, a distributor of wireless infrastructure, was represented by Colliers International’s Charles Canale.
• Dan O’Neill and Steve Chrastka represented Duke’s Bridge in a 23K SF lease with Fresenius Medical Care at The Corporate Plaza, 501 West Lake St. in Elmhurst. Cresa’s Pat Crow represented the tenant.

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JLL’s Peter Caruso, Michele Dugan and Kelly Nickele represented 500 Fordham in a 6,122 SF lease with Ambra Salon & European Spa at 704 North Wabash. Ricciardi Donovan Realty’s Gene Ricciardi represented the tenant.

FINANCING

Cohen Financial’s Dan Rosenberg and Matt Terpstra secured a total of $110M in financing for the acquisition of Schaumburg Towers by American Landmark Properties. Cohen Financial secured the loan from a partnership of lenders including Prime Finance Partners and Pearlmark Real Estate Partners. Cohen Financial partnered with CBRE’s Steve Roth to secure the financing.

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HFF’s Christopher Carroll and Jason Bond arranged $21M in acquisition financing on behalf of Clear Height Properties for a five-property industrial portfolio totaling nearly 666K SF. The portfolio comprises 550-600 North Commons in Aurora, 710-854 Foster in Bensenville, 1400-1538 Elmhurst Road in Elk Grove Village, 3456 North Ridge in Arlington Heights and 8220 North Austin in Morton Grove.

HIRES/PROMOTIONS

Avison Young hired Bruce Hopple as senior vice president in the firm’s office tenant representation practice. Hopple was most recently a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield.

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Principle Construction hired Rob Gibbons as senior project manager. Most recently, Gibbons was a project manager for Henkels & McCoy, where he worked on transmission line and substation contracting throughout Wisconsin.

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Kiser Group hired Andy Friedman and Fred Yarandi as brokers, Tejonne Vinson as broker associate, and Scott Harris and Justin Turner as analysts. Kiser Group also promoted Jake Parker from analyst to broker.

CONSTRUCTION

Duke Realty began construction of a 183K SF bulk warehouse at 990 North Ave. in Glendale Heights. The building is slated for delivery in November.

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J.C. Anderson completed an office renovation for Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery at 120 South LaSalle. Joe Maguire was project executive, Mike Dunn was project manager and superintendents were Glenn Panfil and David Panfil. Partners by Design provided architectural services.

KUDOS

Leasing is underway at 229 Park, a 42-unit apartment community nearing completion in Clarendon Hills. Located at the corner of Park and Walker avenues, 229 Park has a mix of one- and two-bedroom floor plans, including seven flexible live-work residences. One-bedroom apartments rent from $1,700/month, and two-bedroom apartments start at $2,750/month. The live-work residences rent from $3,150/month, and offer storefront office or studio space with street-level access and the ability to display custom signage.

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Vermillion Development announced the beginning of pre-leasing at Viridian on Sheridan, a 100-unit luxury rental development at 734 West Sheridan Road in Lakeview. RMK Management will manage the property, while Luxury Living Chicago Realty is the exclusive marketing and leasing brokerage for the 10-story building.

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Transwestern has been recognized as one of the “Best Workplaces in Chicago” by Fortune magazine and research and consulting firm Great Place to Work for the second consecutive year. The commercial real estate firm was ranked 19th out of 100 companies from various industries across the entire Chicago metro area.

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Podolsky Circle CORFAC International volunteered at Feed My Starving Children in Schaumburg, where the team packed and boxed meals for children in need across the world. Founded in 1987, Feed My Starving Children is a nonprofit that provides nutritionally complete meals specifically formulated for malnourished children. FMSC distributes food to nearly 70 countries around the world through humanitarian agencies and missions. All meals, 24 cents each, are funded by donors and packed by volunteers.