ELK GROVE VILLAGE AND GILBERTS, ILL. — Brown Commercial Group has brokered the $7 million sale of three industrial buildings in suburban Chicago totaling 136,915 square feet. The properties include 1340-1400 Higgins Road and 1425-1455 Tonne Road in Elk Grove Village, as well as 300-338 Arrowhead Drive in Gilberts. All three buildings are fully leased to multiple tenants. Dan Brown of Brown Commercial brokered the transaction on behalf of the buyer, Gilberts and Groves LLC.
COTTAGE GROVE, MINN. — Cushman & Wakefield has negotiated a 38,000-square-foot lease for a new T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods store at Grove Plaza in Cottage Grove, 10 miles south of St. Paul. The new store is part of an ongoing repositioning of Grove Plaza, which was formerly home to a Home Depot and Rainbow Foods. T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods will sit just east of a 95,700-square-foot Hy-Vee grocery store that opened last year. Completion is slated for this fall. Deb Carlson of Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord, EBL-S, in the lease transaction.
CHICAGO — ZOM Living is developing Union West, a 357-unit apartment property at the corner of West Washington Boulevard and North Sangamon Street in Chicago’s West Loop. The property will consist of two residential towers atop a three-story podium, which will house 12,636 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 255 car parking spaces. Floor plans will include studio, convertible, penthouse, one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 501 square feet to 1,377 square feet. Completion is slated for the fourth quarter of 2019. The project team includes general contractor Power Construction, architect BKL Architecture LLC and interior design firm R.D. Jones. ZRS Management LLC will provide leasing and property management services, and Union Labor Life provided construction financing.
ST. LOUIS PARK, MINN. —Mesirow Financial, an investment firm based in Chicago, has acquired Ellipse and e2, a pair of apartment properties totaling 190 units in St. Louis Park. The purchase price was not disclosed. The 132-unit Ellipse, built in 2010, is located at 3920 Excelsior Blvd. Immediately adjacent is e2, a 58-unit apartment building that was completed in 2014. Both properties offer five stories of apartments over a heated underground parking garage. The Ellipse also includes 15,762 square feet of retail space currently occupied by Mill Valley Kitchen, Honey Nails, Partners in Pediatrics/Children’s MN and Viverant Physical Therapy. Combined community amenities include rooftop decks, fitness centers, outdoor living areas, group fitness area, a clubroom and a resident package system. Keith Collins, Abe Appert, Ted Abramson and Ike Hoffman of CBRE represented the seller, Bader Development.
OAK PARK HEIGHTS, MINN. — Dougherty Mortgage LLC has provided a $7.3 million loan for the refinancing of Green Twig Villas in Oak Park Heights, about 25 miles east of Minneapolis. The affordable housing property consists of 62 units. Dougherty’s Minneapolis office originated the 15-year loan, which features a 35-year amortization schedule. The refinancing also included low-income housing tax credits. The borrower was not disclosed.
CHICAGO — Goodman Manufacturing, a member of Daikin Industries Ltd., has signed a 21,000-square-foot industrial lease at 4150 N. Knox Ave. on Chicago’s North Side. The residential and commercial HVAC company will utilize the space as a showroom, training center and distribution hub. Dayton Street Partners owns the 41,000-square-foot property, which features a clear height of 30 feet, six docks, four drive-in doors and T8 lighting. Mike Senner and Steve Kohn of Colliers International in Chicago represented Dayton Street in the lease transaction.
HOMEWOOD, ILL. — The Boulder Group has arranged the $2.9 million sale of a single-tenant property net leased to Walgreens in Homewood, a southern suburb of Chicago. The 13,905-square-foot retail property is located at 820 183rd St. Randy Blankstein and Jimmy Goodman of The Boulder Group represented the seller, a Southeast-based real estate investment firm. A West Coast-based real estate investment firm purchased the asset. Walgreens has over 12 years remaining on its lease.
Office developers in Chicago are thinking outside the box — and outside the central business district — in order to cater to tenants in search of creative office space. While there will always be companies that want the cachet that a business address in the Loop offers, others realize the strategic advantages of urban, non-CBD locations as a recruiting tool. Live/work/play neighborhoods like River North and the West Loop are growing because high-profile employers want to attract a younger workforce that is drawn to the loft-style offices these neighborhoods can provide. This can be achieved either through ground-up development projects like McDonald’s soon-to-open headquarters at 1035 W. Randolph St., or adaptive reuse projects such as 1K Fulton, a former cold-storage facility that now counts Google among its tenants. Yet as rents in these submarkets continue to climb, office users are starting to ask whether they can get the same space for less money in equally desirable locations. For many, the answer is a resounding “yes.” New opportunities While neighborhoods near the CBD such as River West and Pilsen have benefitted from this office “ripple effect,” Chicago’s recently rezoned North Branch Industrial Corridor is perhaps the most alluring and uncharted territory …
ROMEOVILLE, ILL. — CT has begun development of Interchange 55 Logistics Park in the Chicago suburb of Romeoville. The $125 million, 1.3 million-square-foot logistics park is slated for completion by the end of this year. The project will consist of two distribution facilities, each with clear heights of 32 feet, 560-foot building depths and 185-foot truck courts. Building A will feature 657,000 square feet with 60 dock doors, 157 trailer parking spaces and 241 car parking spaces. Building B will feature 684,000 square feet with 68 dock doors, 175 trailer parking spaces and 465 car parking spaces. The design will allow for future expansion of parking and dock doors. Adam Roth, Dan Leahy and Packy Doyle of NAI Hiffman represented CT in the acquisition of the 112-acre land site.
CHIPPEWA FALLS, WIS. — CBRE Capital Markets has arranged the $50.3 million sale of the Mills Fleet Farm distribution center in Chippewa Falls, which is located in western Wisconsin. The Class A build-to-suit property spans 1.1 million square feet. Judd Welliver, Ryan Watts, Guy Ponticiello, Tom Holtz and Sonja Dusil of CBRE represented the seller, Ryan Cos. US Inc., which developed, designed and constructed the building. An affiliate of iStar Inc. purchased the asset.