CHICAGO — Macy’s will close its longtime department store at Water Tower Place in Chicago, according to several media reports. The downtown mall is situated on the Magnificent Mile. Macy’s will begin a clearance sale this month at the 170,000-square-foot store. The retailer will continue to operate nearby stores in Skokie, Oak Brook, Schaumburg and Orland Park. Even before the pandemic began in early 2020, Macy’s announced that it would close 125 stores nationwide over a three-year period in effort to right-size its store fleet. This week, Macy’s unveiled plans to shutter an additional 45 more locations as part of that three-year plan. A full list of the store closures can be found here. Located on Michigan Avenue, Water Tower Place rises eight stories and is home to more than 100 stores. Brookfield Property Partners owns the mall. Earlier this week, Brookfield Asset Management submitted a proposal to take Brookfield Property Partners private for $5.9 billion. The retail vacancy rate for the Magnificent Mile was 10.5 percent in late 2020, up from 7.4 percent in 2019 and 6.5 percent in 2018, according to CBRE. In addition to Macy’s, Gap recently unveiled plans to close its flagship store on Michigan Avenue.
WILLOWBROOK, ILL. — SVN Commercial Chicago has brokered the $7.1 million sale of a 142,000-square-foot industrial property in Willowbrook, a southwest suburb of Chicago. The building sits on 12 acres at 7409 S. Quincy St. The sale also included a 4.9-acre site for future development or expansion. The building’s tenant vacated prior to the end of 2020. Paul Cawthon and Angelo Labriola of SVN’s Cawthon-Labriola Group represented the seller. The buyer and seller information was not disclosed.
PONTOON BEACH, ILL. — Contegra Construction Co. has completed the second warehouse at NorthPoint Development’s Gateway Tradeport in Pontoon Beach near St. Louis. Contegra built the 544,000-square-foot property six months after completing the first warehouse at the 600-acre industrial park. The new building features a clear height of 40 feet, 56 dock doors and parking for 157 trailers. JLL is handling the lease-up. Contegra also made a series of infrastructure improvements to facilitate future development at the site.
O’FALLON, ILL. — IMPACT Strategies has broken ground on a 36,000-square-foot, three-story medical office building in O’Fallon near St. Louis. Known as 50 West Office Building, the Class A project will be situated near the new St. Elizabeth’s Medical Facility. The new building will house the practices of Advanced Vision Care and Ideal Eye Surgery. Construction is slated for completion in July. The Striler Group is serving as the owner’s representative.
WILMINGTON, ILL. — Lee & Associates has negotiated a 500,000-square-foot, full-building industrial lease at 30260 Graaskamp Blvd. in Wilmington, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago. The new building is part of the Elion Logistics Park 55 in Will County. Walter Murhpy of Lee & Associates represented the tenant, Dynamic 3PL. Jeffrey Kapcheck and Jason Lev of CBRE represented the owner and developer, Elion Logistics Partners.
FRANKLIN PARK, ILL. — Colliers International has brokered the sale of a recently built, 99,076-square-foot industrial building in Franklin Park for an undisclosed price. Located at 9300 King Ave., the property was built on a speculative basis and has not yet been leased. Jeff Devine, Steve Disse and Tom Rodeno of Colliers represented the sellers, Clarius Partners and Wanxiang America Real Estate Group. The buyer, Brookfield Property Group, has retained Colliers to serve as leasing agent for the building.
EDWARDSVILLE, ILL. — Sealy & Co. has acquired a 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse in Edwardsville near St. Louis for an undisclosed price. The purchase brings the company’s acquisition volume for 2020 to more than $400 million. The Class A facility is located at 3951 Lakeview Corporate Drive within Lakeview Commerce Center. The business park is situated in the Metro East submarket. The building features a clear height of 32 feet, 96 dock doors and 90 trailer stalls. The current tenant has expanded its presence in recent years within Lakeview Commerce Center and occupies three additional properties, one of which Sealy acquired in January of this year. Michael Caprile and Zach Graham of CBRE brokered the sale. Panattoni Development Co. was the seller.
CHICAGO — Real estate development firm Sterling Bay has licensed space to local fitness startup BOLD, which will open modular fitness pods at 1000 W. Carroll Ave. in Chicago’s Fulton Market. BOLD will enable Chicago residents to reserve private pods outfitted with fitness equipment that are cleaned to commercial-grade standards between each use. Pods can be reserved in 60-minute increments. Each one features kettlebell sets, medicine balls, bikes, rowing machines and high-definition screens for streaming guided workouts. The 320-square-foot pods are made from shipping containers. “In looking at how the pandemic so quickly impacted the ability of traditional fitness studios to operate at full capacity, it became clear that BOLD’s model for small, private training facilities could help to fill a need for Chicago gym-goers,” says Andy Gloor, CEO of Sterling Bay. Former Wall Street hedge fund investor and investment banker Jake Goldstein founded BOLD on the heels of COVID-19 as a way of offering a safe gym option that bridges the gap between physical gym space and digital fitness. BOLD uses filtration units from AEX Technology Solutions to disinfect its pods. Each pod features its own isolated HVAC air filtration system to prevent recycled air. Users are required to …
CHICAGO — SVN Chicago Commercial has brokered the sale of a 35,000-square-foot industrial building in Chicago for an undisclosed price. The property, known as the Pierini Iron Works Building, sits on two acres at 6200 S. Sayre Ave. Beverly Hayes and Daniel Vanchieri of SVN brokered the sale.
ELGIN, ILL. — Entre Commercial Realty has negotiated a 137,522-square-foot industrial lease on behalf of an undisclosed plastics company at Northwest Pointe III in Elgin. The newly constructed building is situated within Northwest Corporate Park and features a customized office buildout. Dan Benassi of Entre represented the tenant. Ken Franzese and John Cassidy of Lee & Associates represented ownership, Conor Commercial Real Estate and Globe Corp. McShane Construction Co. built the building.