WESTMONT, ILL. — 29th Street Capital (29SC) has purchased Warwick Apartments in Westmont, a western suburb of Chicago, for an undisclosed price. The company plans to make approximately $500,000 in capital improvements to the 32-unit apartment property. Planned interior upgrades include stainless steel appliances, new paint, countertops and cabinets. Exterior improvements will include roof repairs, window replacement, paint and new lighting. The seller was not disclosed.
CHICAGO — Publicis has signed an office lease renewal and expansion at 35 W. Wacker Drive in Chicago. The new lease for 681,545 square feet represents a 50,000-square-foot expansion for Publicis, which is an advertising and public relations company. The firm is consolidating three other Chicago-area offices into this location. Also known as the Leo Burnett Building, 35 W. Wacker is a 1 million-square-foot, Class A building that is now fully leased. Drew Nieman and Christy Domin of CBRE represented the landlord, UBS Asset Management, in the lease transaction. Mike Christian and Steve Schneider of Cushman & Wakefield represented Publicis.
CHICAGO — Sterling Bay has received a $181.5 million loan for the construction of 333 N. Green St., a 548,932-square-foot office tower in Chicago’s Fulton Market district. The Class A office tower will rise 19 stories, with floor plates ranging from 13,634 to 40,589 square feet. The property will feature 31,521 square feet of street-level retail space and a four-floor parking garage. Amenities will include a fitness center, conference area, tenant lounge and private rooftop. The LEED Silver-certified building is 47.2 percent preleased to GroupM and will serve as the advertising media company’s North American headquarters. The building will also serve as the regional headquarters for GroupM’s parent company, WPP. Other big-name companies that have chosen to open offices in the bustling Fulton Market district include Google, McDonald’s and Dyson. Timothy Joyce, Danny Kaufman and Christopher Knight of HFF arranged the floating-rate loan through Wells Fargo. Sterling Bay is a real estate investment and development firm with over 10 million square feet in its portfolio. The Chicago-based company currently has a pipeline of over $10 billion in development. — Kristin Hiller
FRANKLIN PARK, ILL. — Freight shipping and trucking company K2 Express has signed a 91,859-square-foot industrial lease renewal and expansion at 10800-10900 Belmont Ave. in Franklin Park. The company previously occupied 67,337 square feet at the 600,000-square-foot property, which is owned by Prologis. Brian Carroll of Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) represented K2 Express in the lease transaction. Scott Gibbel of Cushman & Wakefield represented Prologis. In addition, K2 Express signed a long-term lease at a neighboring four-acre trailer yard. Carroll represented the tenant, while Steve Levitas and Bob Chodos of NKF represented the landlord, Hill Mechanical.
The Cook County Board of Commissioners may have dealt manufacturing districts in South and Southwest Cook County, Illinois, their final blow. The use of property tax incentives has increased over the past several decades and has been a vital economic development tool in this manufacturing belt. The industrial corridor suffered a one-two punch during the Great Recession and is still hanging onto the ropes, trying to recover while the rest of Cook County thrives. Cook County property tax incentives reduce assessed values used to determine a property’s tax bill. Assessors normally set taxable value at 25 percent of a property’s market value, while assessing real estate qualifying for the incentive at 10 percent of market value. This yields a taxable value 60 percent lower than the asset would carry under the standard calculation. The recession gutted Cook County’s manufacturing belt. Numerous manufacturing companies either closed their doors for good or relocated to nearby Indiana, recruited with the promise of a feather-weight tax burden. The migration left a glut of vacant facilities in its wake, driving market values and the assessment base into a downward spiral. As the market and occupancy rates plummeted, local tax rates spiked, exceeding 35 percent in …
NAPERVILLE, ILL. — Franklin Partners, in a joint venture with Bixby Bridge Capital, has purchased the former OfficeMax headquarters at 263 Shuman Blvd. in Naperville with plans to redevelop the property. The 350,000-square-foot vacant office building will be transformed into a multi-tenant building. The main entrance and atrium will be redesigned with a grand staircase. A lower level will feature baristas, a market-style deli, fitness center, co-working lounges and other amenities. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year with completion slated for early 2019. Wright Heerema Architects is the project architect. Francis Prock and David Florent of Colliers International will market the renovated property for lease.
CHICAGO — Construction firm Skender has broken ground on a 14-story Hyatt House hotel in Chicago’s Fulton Market district. The 167,000-square-foot, 200-room development is located at 105 N. May St. The Hyatt House will be the first hotel in the Fulton Market district to cater to extended-stay corporate travelers. Amenities will include an indoor pool, green roof, fitness center and bar and lounge. Sterling Bay is the project developer, and Eckenhoff Saunders Architects is the architect. Completion is slated for summer 2019.
CHICAGO AND GLENVIEW, ILL. — Essex Realty Group Inc. has brokered the sale of two apartment properties in the Chicago area for $25 million. One of the properties is a 31-unit building located at 1545 W. North Ave. in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Doug Imber, Kate Varde and Clay Maxfield of Essex represented the seller and developer, Sedgwick Properties. The Supera family purchased the asset for $12.1 million. The other is a 36-unit building located at 1202 Waukegan Road in Glenview. Matt Welke of Essex represented the seller and developer, Riverforest Development LLC. Doug Fisher and Vic Ciancetta of Essex represented the buyer, an out-of-state private investor who purchased the asset for $13.1 million.
ROCKFORD AND PARK FOREST, ILL. — MetroGroup Realty Finance has arranged three loans totaling $3.7 million used to refinance a three-property retail portfolio in northern Illinois. The assets, totaling 38,639 square feet, are all leased to Walgreens for 50-year terms. Built in the 1990s, the standalone properties are located at 3803 Auburn St. and 1602 Kishwaukee St. in Rockford, and 15 S. Orchard Drive in Park Forest. The three loans replace two maturing CMBS loans and return a portion of the equity to ownership, according to Patrick Ward, MetroGroup president. A St. Louis-based bank provided the financing. Scott Ketchum, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based private investor, was the borrower.
CHICAGO — Interra Realty has brokered the $30 million deconversion sale of a 15-story condominium building in Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood. The property is located at 445 W. Wellington Ave. The buyer, Beal Properties, plans to turn the 65-year-old building’s 117 condos into rental apartments. All 117 units contain one bedroom and one bath. David Goss, Jon Morgan and Joe Smazal represented both the buyer and the seller, Wellington Place Condominium Association. Under the Condominium Property Act in Illinois, condo unit owners can elect to sell a condo property if 75 percent or more are in agreement. Sellers then have the option to either move out or lease back the unit from the new owner. “The deconversion trend will continue as demand for apartment buildings, especially in desirable North Side neighborhoods, keeps outpacing the available supply of buildings for investors,” says Smazal. “The deconversion trend still has legs, but there are headwinds (rising interest rates and slower rent growth) that should create a sense of urgency for associations which are considering a deconversion.”
