This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet
A venture of veteran Chicago-based real estate developers Bob Wislow and Camille Julmy started construction of Fulton East, a 12-story, 90K SF office and retail building at 215 North Peoria St. in the Fulton Market District. The partners will complete construction in spring 2020. Fulton East will feature 11-foot, 4-inch ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows, and 9-by-27-foot balconies on each floor, as well as an 8K SF landscaped rooftop park for tenant use.
“At Fulton East, design firms, growing startups, family offices, venture capital and private equity firms, or law, accounting and consulting firms serving companies in the Fulton Market and West Loop neighborhoods can locate in a building sized for their business in the middle of what has become Chicago’s newest corporate epicenter,” Wislow said.
Chicago-based Clayco leads the design-build effort for Fulton East with its in-house architecture firm, Lamar Johnson Collaborative. Building amenities include reserved indoor parking and an enclosed bicycle storage room. The property also offers a 5K SF street-level retail space.
EXECS
The Institute of Real Estate Management named Lindsay Bonilla, Draper and Kramer’s property manager at luxury rental tower Burnham Pointe, to its 30 Under 30 list for 2019. The national program highlights young leaders committed to advancing the real estate management profession by demonstrating creativity, innovation and leadership in their careers. Bonilla was a founding member of DK Elevate, Draper and Kramer’s internal development program for emerging leaders, and participated in IREM’s Next-Gen CPM Leadership program, which allows her to accelerate her pursuit of CPM certification.
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Andrew Sandquist and JC Asensio, both from CBRE’s corporate capital markets team, joined NKF as vice chairman and managing director, respectively. The pair executed sale/leaseback and net-lease transactions in excess of $7.3B in volume, across 47 states and 10 countries, according to NKF.
LEASES
LTD Commodities, a catalog and online merchandiser, signed a long-term, 10-year renewal of its lease for a 694K SF distribution facility at 1000 Bilter Road in suburban Aurora. Cushman & Wakefield’s Jason West and Chris Cummins represented LTD Commodities. The landlord, Liberty Property Trust, was represented by Matt Neumann.
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Glassdoor, an online job and recruiting site, expanded its Chicago presence by signing a long-term lease for 52K SF on two full floors of a new office building, West End on Fulton, developed by Trammell Crow at 1375 West Fulton. The space can accommodate up to 400 employees, but the company will maintain its existing space and operations at 1330 West Fulton. In less than three years, Glassdoor’s office here grew from 30 employees to approximately 300 employees, and company officials say they plan to create up to 500 new Chicago jobs over the next several years.
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VK Industrial IV L.P., a partnership between Venture One Capital and Kovitz Investment Group, closed on the acquisition of a 78K SF industrial building at 1001-1043 North Lombard Road in suburban Lombard. Eight tenants lease 86% of the building. The 18-foot clear height building was constructed in 1989, and Venture One plans to complete improvements for the vacant units, including office improvements, warehouse paint and adding energy-efficient lighting. Lee & Associates’ Jay Farnam and Jeff Galante represented the seller and Venture One retained them to market the property for lease.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Somerset Development retained Chicago-based integrated design and delivery firm Wight & Co. to provide design services for Bell Works Chicagoland, a redevelopment project that will transform the vacant 1.65M SF AT&T corporate campus in suburban Hoffman Estates into a mixed-use complex that will include office, coworking, retail and community space.
Wight & Co. will serve as the project’s master architect, designing its shell and core, public spaces and individual tenant spaces in collaboration with the Somerset design team that worked on the developer’s initial Bell Works project in Monmouth, New Jersey. The AT&T headquarters, built as the Ameritech Center in 1990, was originally designed by Wight & Co. principal Dirk Lohan, formerly with Lohan Associates. In addition to Bell Works Chicagoland’s 1.1M SF of office and 60K SF of retail and restaurants, Somerset plans to include an 80K SF conference center and a 29K SF fitness center.
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Fifield Cos. will break ground on 740 Aberdeen on July 16. The developer plans to deliver the 188-unit, 11-story transit-oriented development in Chicago’s River West neighborhood in fall 2020. Designed by Chicago-based FitzGerald Associates Architects, with interiors by Morgante Wilson Associates and McHugh Construction as general contractor, 740 Aberdeen will include a public park designed by Hitchcock Design Group. Indoor amenities will include a penthouse-level party room designed by Brianne Bishop Design.
SALES
Avison Young’s Tom Curtis and John Moysey represented a national manufacturing company in the sale of a 117K SF industrial building at 1020 Olympic Drive in west suburban Batavia, part of Chicago’s Fox Valley submarket. The buyer, Midwest Industrial Funds, now has more than 40 properties throughout the Chicago market, including several in Fox Valley. It also retained Avison Young to market the repositioned Class-B asset, which will undergo major renovations. Financial details were not disclosed.
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SVN Chicago Commercial’s Jeff Baasch completed the $10M sale of 909-25 West Belmont, the location of the original Ann Sather restaurant. 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney, the restaurant's owner, retains the right to continue operating it for another 10 years.
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Monument Capital Management acquired Townhomes at Highcrest, a 176-unit apartment community at 3514 West 83rd St. in suburban Woodbridge, from Highcrest Apartments. It plans to invest approximately $1.5M in capital improvements throughout the property. The firm now owns 30 properties totaling more than 6,000 units throughout the Southeast, Midwest, Texas and Arizona, including three in the Chicago region.
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Terri Cox and Don Wagener of Matanky Realty Group closed the sale of Orchard Park Plaza, a 102K SF shopping center at 80-138 South Orchard Drive in downtown Park Forest. Freedom Development Group purchased the 14-acre, three-building property for an undisclosed price. The more than 100K SF of retail space, located in a federal opportunity zone, includes a fully equipped grocery store and auto repair center and is anchored by Family Dollar.
THIS AND THAT
Pacific Retail Capital Partners, a Southern California-based property owner/operator and developer, took over as operator and manager for Southgate Market, located at 1101 South Canal St. in Chicago’s South Loop. The center includes major chains such as Whole Foods Market, PetSmart, Marshalls, LA Fitness, Starbucks, Michaels, Panera Bread and DSW along with professional medical offices of University of Chicago Medicine.
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CommercialCafé put together a new study looking at the 15 most popular CBDs in the country and compared the prices of similar-sized assets. The group found that in Chicago, a $26.7M investment can get you 100K SF of Class-A office space. In comparison, the same amount of space would cost $79M in Midtown Manhattan, $60.6M in Washington, D.C., $44.6M in Los Angeles and $25.4M in Denver.
