Mike covers our Texas and Phoenix/Southwest regions. He is a veteran news reporter who spent 10 years in radio and television news, mostly in Tucson, Arizona. Following his career in the media, he spent ten years as a communications executive for a publicly traded development company. Mike is married with three boys and three Huskies.

A nearly $1B Fifth Avenue sale and several midsized Midtown office leases were the highlights of the past week in New York City commercial real estate.

TOP LEASES

Fisher Brothers’ Park Avenue Plaza, located at 55 E. 52nd St., is 100% leased following an expansion by existing tenant Evercore.

Investment banking advisory firm Evercore is adding 95K SF to its space at Fisher Brothers’ Park Avenue Plaza office tower, the landlord announced. Evercore is expanding to the 39th through 41st floors at the property, boosting its footprint to roughly 500K SF at 55 E. 52nd St. The 45-story property is now 100% leased. Fisher Brothers was repped in-house by Marc Packman, Charles Laginestra, Clark Briffel and Josh Fisher.

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Bank of America has signed one of the largest office leases in recent New Jersey history. The Charlotte-based lending giant is consolidating offices into 550K SF at Newport Tower, a 1.1M SF building at 525 Washington Blvd. in Jersey City, owned by BGO. Cushman & Wakefield’s Robert Rudin, David DeMatteis, Mina Shehata, Dirk Hrobsky, Karl Helgessen, Jan Randall Dausend and Christina Magill represented BGO, while CBRE’s Bob Alexander, Ryan Alexander and Taylor Callaghan represented Bank of America. 

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The Feil Organization has signed private security and fire safety contractor Mulligan Security to 25K SF at 7 Penn Plaza, according to a release. Mulligan Security was already a tenant at the 370 Seventh Ave. building but only occupied 9K SF. The renewal and expansion runs for 12 years. Mulligan Security will also get a new private lobby with an entrance on 30th Street. Asking rents were $65 per SF. The 18-story, 357K SF office tower saw several new leases last year, including 10-year expansions and renewals with KC Engineering and Land Surveying P.C. and accounting firm MarcumAsia. CBRE’s David Hollander and David Katz repped Mulligan Security, while Andrew Wiener, David Turino and Henry Korzec repped The Feil Organization in-house.

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SL Green has signed three office leases and one retail lease at 1185 Sixth Ave. spanning 56K SF in total, according to a release. Slatebrook LP signed a 15K SF deal for 11 years, taking part of the 23rd floor. Insurance firm Ryan Specialty LLC took 13K SF for a three-year term on another part of the 23rd floor. ICBC Standard Resources, whose parent company already occupies almost 100K SF in the building, signed for 15K SF on the 15th floor for 11 years. On the ground floor, Carnegie Diner and Naxos Greek Restaurant signed a 17-year deal for 14K SF.

Slatebrook was repped by Norman Bobrow & Co.’s Jacob Wolkenfeld, and Ryan Specialty had representation from Colliers’ Ryan Barr, Howard Grufferman and Catherine Soderquist. Newmark’s Timothy Gibson, Bill Levitsky, Jason Perla and John Cilmi repped ICBC, with Newmark’s Jeffrey Roseman also representing Carnegie Diner and Naxos Greek Restaurant. Ripco’s Richard Skulnik, Lindsay Zegans and Ben Sabin represented SL Green in the ground-floor retail lease, while Newmark’s Brian Waterman, Scott Klau, Brent Ozarowski, David Waterman and Kevin Sullivan represented the landlord in the office deals.

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Nonprofit group West Side Campaign Against Hunger is relocating from the Upper West Side to 15K SF in Washington Heights, according to a release. The WSCAH will move from 263 W. 86th St. later this year to the ground floor of 549 W. 180th St., which is owned by Colliers, according to tenant rep Open Impact Real Estate. Asking rents weren’t disclosed, but retail rents range from $60 to $90 per SF in the neighborhood, according to the release. Open Impact’s Lindsay Ornstein, Stephen Powers and Jake Cinti repped WSCAH, while Colliers’ Dina Coulianidis represented the landlord in-house.

TOP SALES

717 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan, which Kering acquired for $963M.

Kerig, the parent company of luxury fashion houses Balenciaga, Gucci and Brioni, has purchased a 115K SF space at the base of 717 Fifth Ave. for $963M. The multilevel retail condominium at the bottom of the 26-story, 468K SF building is leased to Armani and Dolce & Gabbana, although Armani’s lease in the space is set to expire shortly, the New York Post reported. The seller is a joint venture of Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Properties and SL Green, the latter of which has an 11% stake. Lender New York Life filed a foreclosure suit against ownership after the landlords defaulted on a $300M loan on the property, The Real Deal previously reported. Sutton also owned nearby 720 and 724 Fifth Ave. until last month, when luxury fashion house Prada bought them for more than $820M. Sutton was advised by Eastdil Secured on both deals. 

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The Jack Shainman Gallery has acquired 20K SF inside the Tribeca Clock Tower Building for $18.2M, various art-focused news outlets reported. The property, located at 46 Lafayette St., will serve as home to the gallery’s exhibitions, starting when it opens in September with a look at deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The gallery is the latest in a series of prominent tenants, which included the New York Society Library and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center’s institute known as the Clocktower Gallery. The building was completed in 1894 and features marble columns and gilded ceilings, according to Surface magazine. Peter Braus, Cory Gahr and Brad Schwarz of Lee & Associates repped the seller, Elad Group, Crain’s New York Business reported.

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Real estate firm Ryco Capital has acquired an East Village rental property for $19.1M, Crain’s reported. The property, 135 Avenue A, has 31 units spread across five stories in three buildings, according to StreetEasy. Its ground floor is also home to longtime dive bar Lucy’s. The seller was Peter Herrick, who public records show bought the property in 1977.

TOP FINANCING DEALS

The Tillary Hotel and Residences in Brooklyn, where owner Ohana Real Estate Investors scored a $59M refinancing loan from Slate Asset Management.

Slate Asset Management has agreed to lend $59M to Ohana Real Estate Investors to refinance the Tillary Hotel and Residences in Brooklyn. The property, a 12-story, 174-key hotel and 64-unit multifamily residence, is located between the Downtown Brooklyn and Dumbo neighborhoods at 85 Flatbush Avenue Extension. JLL Americas’ Mark Fisher and Barnett Wu represented Ohana in the deal. Ohana acquired the Tillary out of bankruptcy in 2022.

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Owner and developer Adellco scored a $21.5M condo inventory loan on unsold units at 1295 Madison Ave., a newly built condo property one block from Central Park, according to a release. Connecticut-based family office Lancewood Capital provided the debt at a “near-bank rate,” according to a release from Lantern Real Estate, whose Tal Bar-or and David Strongwater arranged the loan.

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The Kaufman Organization scored a $33M refinancing deal for its eight-story office building at 111 W. 19th St., Crain’s New York Business reported. The sum came from Citigroup and was arranged by a JLL team led by Aaron Niedermayer. The property was built in 1901 and last renovated in 2015, according to PropertyShark. 

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Vaja Group nabbed a $32.2M loan for a residential project in the Bronx’s Westchester Square neighborhood, Commercial Observer reported. The loan, which came from Popular Bank, will fund a proposed 81-unit development at 2121 Glebe Ave., which would replace the 26K SF industrial building on the site and include 22K SF of air rights, according to PincusCo. Vaja Group acquired the property in July for $4.5M.

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Citibank has signed a refinancing agreement worth $52.1M with A&R Kalimian Realty for a 17-story residential building in Lenox Hill, PincusCo reported. The property, a 110-unit building at 305 E. 63rd St., previously had a loan for the same amount that also came from Citibank.  

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SMA Equities notched a $70.6M refinancing deal from JLL Real Estate Capital for a newly built Gramercy rental building, PincusCo reported. The sum replaces a $56M loan on the 108-unit, 81K SF building at 397 Third Ave. from Valley National Bank. SMA Equities bought the property in 2015 for $14M.

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Barrier Free Living, an emergency shelter provider for domestic violence survivors with disabilities, signed a $45.3M loan for a development in Alphabet City, PincusCo reported. The funding came from Merchants Bank of Indiana and NYS Homeless Housing and Assistance Corp. and will go toward the construction of a 75-unit property at 270 E. Second St., which was permitted in November.

Alterra Industrial Outdoor Storage acquired a 17-property portfolio through a process spearheaded by the CBRE capital markets team in Chicago.

The TruGreen Portfolio includes 840 Commerce Parkway, a 22K SF property in Carpentersville

The TruGreen Portfolio consists of properties totaling 350K SF in 15 metros including Tampa, Chicago, Charlotte, Austin and San Antonio. Chris White and Charlie Totten, both vice presidents of acquisitions at Alterra Property Group, facilitated the deal.

“This portfolio is a continuation of our strategy of acquiring well-located IOS assets in top MSA’s. It was a pleasure working with TruGreen and the CBRE team to finalize a mutually beneficial long-term lease agreement in a relatively short period of time,” White said in a press release. 

TruGreen has committed to a long-term leaseback agreement for all 17 properties. 

PEOPLE

The Chicago chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors named its new executive board officers: Peter Billmeyer, Ryan Moen, Bill Lussow, John Cassidy and Sean Henrick. Billmeyer will serve his second term as chapter president. The SIOR tapped Moen as vice president and Lussow will be treasurer. Cassidy will fill the secretary position, and Henrick will be the director-at-large. 

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​​Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres tapped real estate and development executive David Reifman as a partner and chair of the real estate practice group. In his role, Reifman will advise real estate developers, investors, businesses, family offices and individuals on commercial real estate transactions. Prior to joining the firm, Reifman served as president of Clayco’s Chicago business unit where he oversaw enterprise activity for development, design and construction-related activities in the Chicago area. 

SALES

Bridge Industrial acquired a roughly 22-acre site at the intersection of Route 53 and Joliet Road. Bridge plans to construct two industrial, Class-A facilities totaling 292K SF on a speculative basis.

Bridge acquired the site from Orange Crush, which previously used the facility as an asphalt crushing and transloading facility. Construction is set to begin in Q2 2024, with project delivery anticipated in mid-2025. NAI Hiffman’s Dan Leahy represented Bridge in the sale and will serve as the leasing agent for the development once completed.

LEASES

AmTrust RE completed two office lease renewals totaling over 20K SF at 33 N. Dearborn St. Heyl Royster and KIPP Foundation extended their leases at the 330K SF office property. Advocate Commercial Real Estate Advisors’ David Knight, Ethan Braham and Luke Wuchenich represented the tenants in the transactions. 

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CBRE completed the leasing efforts at Joliet Marketplace, a building totaling 100K SF, bringing it to full occupancy. CBRE’s Sean McCourt and Joe Parrott represented building ownership, IG Capital, in the transaction. 

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Urban Innovations completed 12 leases, including nine new leases, in River North. The largest lease came from information technology firm Softchoice Corp., which signed a 15K SF lease renewal at 314 W. Superior St. CBRE’s Jon Milonas represented the tenant in this deal, while Urban Innovations’ Aaron Zaretsky represented ownership on all of these transactions.

THIS AND THAT

The Chicago chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors and the SIOR Foundation recently awarded its 2023 Len Caldeira Scholarships totaling $12K to four students: Jordyn Dellis and Anna Zimmerman from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Christian Krull and Xavier Papillon from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Each of the students received a $3K scholarship.

Orlando-based Holidays Network Group paid $27M for a Miami Beach apartment building that is approved for conversion into a 107-room hotel, The Real Deal reports. The 88-unit apartment complex at 2618 Collins Ave. was sold by a joint venture of investors Eli Dadon, Avi Dishi and Richard Waserstein. 

Holidays Network Group paid $27M for an apartment building at 2618 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach.

The sellers had paid a combined $10M between 2014 and 2017 to acquire condos at the property before converting it to rentals. The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board approved a plan in 2018 to renovate the half-acre property into a boutique hotel. 

Holidays Network Group secured a $35.3M loan from Phoenix-based Western Alliance Bank as part of the acquisition, signaling that it plans to move ahead with the renovation. The property was built in 1951 as an art deco hotel designed by Roy France and has historic designations that prohibit full demolition.

SALES

The 103-key Marriott West Palm Beach Airport traded for $20.5M, the South Florida Business Journal reported. MHG Hotels, which has headquarters in Boca Raton and Indianapolis, purchased the hotel at 1800 Centrepark Drive E from an entity managed by Jay Batra, the CEO of Ohio-based Regal Hospitality. 

The 63K SF hotel, which includes a pool, restaurant and fitness center, was built on a 2.5-acre parcel in 2001. MHG Hotels is planning a $4M renovation that will include updating guest rooms, modernizing common spaces and updating the exterior. 

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An affiliate of Macklowe Properties closed on the $47.7M purchase of a 51-unit co-op called Biscayne Sea Club in North Bay Village, the SFBJ reported. The seller was Bay-Four and Biscayne Sea Club, the nonprofit that governed the co-op, located at 8000 East Drive.

The buyer, a firm led by New York developer Harry Macklowe, financed the purchase through a $32M mortgage from an affiliate of Hallandale Beach-based Kawa Capital called CRE TI LLC.

Macklowe had the property under contract since May, and Biscayne Sea Club terminated all the leases at the property and approved the sale earlier this year. Macklowe is also reportedly under contract to buy a nearby apartment building at 7941 East Drive for $10.6M, but property records indicate the sale hasn’t closed.  

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

The company behind the South Florida-based restaurant chain Moon Thai & Japanese filed plans to build a three-story restaurant in Wynwood, Commercial Observer reported.

Moon Thai Group is planning the restaurant on a quarter-acre site at 82 Northwest 28th St. that it acquired for $6M in 2021. The proposal for a 350-seat restaurant is a pared-down version of an earlier plan in September to build a five-story restaurant on the site.  

Moon Thai, founded by chef Jack Punma, first opened 23 years ago in Coral Gables. It has since grown to include eight South Florida locations and one in Charlotte.

Eight tenants signed or renewed leases at Citigroup Center in Downtown Miami.

LEASES

More than 38K SF of leases have recently been signed at the 34-story Citigroup Center office tower in Downtown Miami, according to a release. The six new tenants and two lease renewals at the 810K SF tower at 201 South Biscayne Blvd. are:

• The Miami Downtown Development Authority, an independent agency of the city of Miami, which is relocating from another Downtown building into 9,295 SF. Blanca’s Danet Linares represented the tenant.
• Trion Properties, a California-based multifamily real estate investment sponsor, which will take a 3,700 SF spec suite for its first Miami space. CBRE broker Alina Plasencia represented the tenant.
• Marex Solutions, a London-based subsidiary of Marex that creates and distributes currency and commodity derivatives, which signed on for a 3,200 SF spec suite that will be its first Miami office. It was represented by Damla Barrett at Colliers. 
• Kili Topco Ltd. and its subsidiary K2 Human Capital Solutions, which leased a 2,500 SF spec suite. The recruiting firm is relocating from Brickell and was represented in the transaction by RE/MAX’s Alex Ferran. 
• Lithium Capital Management, a Chilean investment advisory firm, which inked a deal for a 2,400 SF spec suite. It was represented by NAI’s Jeremy Larkin. 
• Pisec Group, a steel trading company, which will relocate from Brickell into a 2K SF spec suite.  
• A Brazilian investment advisory firm called Galapago Advisory that renewed its lease and expanded its footprint to 4,600 SF. 
• An unnamed law firm that renewed its 11K SF lease. 

Citigroup Center is owned by New York-based Monarch Alternative Capital and an affiliate of CP Group, a Boca Raton-based real estate investment firm. The CP Group entity purchased the property in February 2000 for $115M, according to property records, and Monarch purchased a majority stake in the property in 2021 for an undisclosed price.  

The landlord was represented in the leases by Steven Hurwitz, Doug Okun and Madeline Fine at JLL.

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Hephaestus Pharmaceuticals signed a five-year lease at Prologis Beacon Industrial Park, located at 10913 Northwest 30th St. in Doral. The 13K SF space has a 24-foot clear height and includes nearly 3K SF of office space. 

Hephaestus plans to build a sterile compounding facility in the warehouse where it will manufacture and pack prescriptions. The tenant was represented by Michael Avendano, vice president at Lee & Associates.  

Jamestown sold Malibu Village for $81.5M, or about $1,600 per SF, to Stan Kroenke, according to The Real Deal, which cited an anonymous source. The deal represents a big discount from the $120M, or $2,300 per SF, Jamestown paid for the retail center in 2014. The purchase of the retail property is Kroenke’s third in the last year or so in the LA area. His other two were in the San Fernando Valley, both previously owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. 

Malibu, California

PEOPLE

Skanska USA Civil West has announced James Bailey has been promoted to executive vice president of the West Coast region and Ryan Clayton will be promoted to senior vice president and general manager, a role formerly held by Bailey. Clayton was senior vice president of operations for the Northwest region. Bailey replaces previous Executive Vice President Mike Aparicio, who will take on the role of senior vice president of operations as he transitions toward retirement. 

SALES

Boston-based King Street Properties expanded to San Diego. King Street acquired 5825 Oberlin Drive in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa neighborhood. The roughly 4-acre site holds a 62K SF flex office building. King Street plans to reposition the asset into move-in-ready research and development suites. The sale price wasn’t disclosed and hasn’t yet been posted in public records. 

LEASES

NAI Capital Commercial Executive Vice President Tina LaMonica represented Pasadena Child Development Associates in the completion of a 16K SF lease for two adjacent buildings, one at 790 East Green St. and the other at 118 South Oak Knoll in Pasadena. Both freestanding buildings are located in Pasadena’s central business district and are within walking distance of shopping, dining and business service amenities on Lake Avenue. 

FINANCING

Byline Bank’s commercial real estate team provided a $13.7M construction loan to Charlotte, North Carolina-based Madison Capital Group. Madison Capital will use the funds to develop a self-storage property at 15932 Minnesota Ave. in Paramount. The project will include the demolition of an existing industrial property on the site and the construction of a new ground-up building for the storage facility. The project will feature 845 units, 841 of which will be temperature-controlled. It will be managed by Madison Capital Partners’ self-storage brand Go Store It. 

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JLL Capital Markets arranged the $12M refinancing of Mission Promenade, a 106K SF dual-grocery-anchored shopping center in Oceanside. JLL represented the borrower, Milan Capital Management, to secure the 10-year loan through a regional bank. 

Built in 1972 and renovated in 1999, Mission Promenade at 1527-1547 Mission Ave. is 97% occupied by a diverse tenant group including Latino supermarket chain El Super and a 22K SF DD’s Discounts store. The JLL team that represented the borrower was led by JLL Senior Managing Director Jeff Sause and Managing Director John Chun.

The office sublease market may finally be cooling off. The amount of sublease space in Chicago’s Central Business District increased by 75% between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021, hitting a historic high of 5.7M SF, but the market has begun to contract, according to MBRE.

There is now 5.4M SF of available sublease space, which is 287K SF less than there was at the end of Q1 2021, the firm reports.

Merchandise Mart

A few new blocks of sublease space were added to the market. At the Merchandise Mart in River North, 89K SF of Velocity EHS’ space became available, according to MBRE. But other large blocks, such as Groupon’s 293K SF at 600 West Chicago Ave., also in River North, have been removed.

The West Loop remains king of the sublease market. There are 124 spaces available for sublease, totaling more than 2.3M SF, roughly 44% of the downtown’s available space. The Central Loop comes in second, with 75 spaces available totaling about 1M SF.

EXECS

Chicago real estate executive Jim McGill launched Stotan Industrial, a private investment firm specializing in the acquisition and development of industrial properties critical to the U.S. supply chain and e-commerce distribution. McGill will initially focus on markets such as Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville and Charlotte, and plans to deploy between $250M and $300M of capital in the next 18 months. He was previously an executive vice president with CA Industrial, a subsidiary of Chicago-based CA Ventures. Prior to joining CA Ventures, McGill was the managing director of capital deployment for Prologis’ central region.

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Stage Equity Partners, a Chicago-based healthcare real estate investment firm, hired Alex Katz as managing director of development and Justin Kleifield as senior associate – acquisitions and asset management. Before joining Stage Equity, Katz served as a partner with a privately held real estate company that developed retail and medical properties in the Chicago area. He also previously served as director of acquisitions for Skokie, Illinois-based Next Realty. Kleifield previously worked as an asset manager at Chicago-based Dayton Street Partners.

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Courtesy of Sterling Bay

Jesse Van Dyke

Sterling Bay hired Jesse Van Dyke as its first director of national leasing. Van Dyke will supervise the firm’s leasing efforts across all outside markets, including Miami, Dallas, Portland and Washington, D.C., and supplement its efforts in Chicago. Sterling Bay intends to have expanded to another three U.S. markets by the end of 2021. Van Dyke began his career at CBRE in 2000, specializing in tenant representation, and in 2008, Van Dyke joined JLL, where he worked with tenants in the tech and finance sectors.  

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Kiser Group promoted Austin Parker from associate to adviser after nearly two years with the company. He will focus on helping investors buy and sell multifamily properties between two and four units throughout Chicago. As an associate, Parker focused on the South Side market. In addition to Parker’s promotion, Kiser Group hired Ben Goldman as a new associate.

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Chicago-based Waterton hired Aaron Sheppard as vice president of capital programs. He will oversee construction and development for Pathway to Living, Waterton’s senior housing arm. He was previously an account director at Cushman & Wakefield as well as director of operations at Ascension Senior Living.

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Michael Tenuta founded Naperville, Illinois-based Strategic Project Advisors. The firm will represent owner interests in all aspects of project planning and construction management in Chicagoland and across the U.S. Most recently, Tenuta headed up project management at Avison Young’s Chicago office.

Courtesy of JLL

101 West

SALES

Monroe Residential Partners sold 101 West, an apartment community at 101 West Liberty St. in northwest suburban Barrington, to HP Ventures Group for $20.7M. 101 West totals 63K SF of rentable space, consisting of 64 one- and two-bedroom units. Marty O’Connell, David Gaines and Kyle Butler of JLL Capital Markets represented the seller.

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Woodland Hills, California-based NewMark Merrill Cos. purchased Bricktown Square, a 292K SF retail center at 6420 West Fullerton Ave. on Chicago’s Northwest Side, from Bonnie Investment Group. NewMark Merrill owns and operates three other retail properties in the Chicagoland area, including Stony Island Plaza in Chicago and Stratford Crossing in northwest suburban Bloomingdale. NewMark Merrill was represented in-house by Sandy Sigal, Jim Patton, Brad Pearl, Sandra Kist and Susan Rorison. The sellers represented themselves. The center was financed by ReCap, a subsidiary of RGA Real Insurance Group of America. 

LEASES

WFLD, the local Fox-owned and -operated television station, signed a multiyear lease restructure and extension for 64K SF in Michigan Plaza at 205 North Michigan Ave., where it has been since 1985. Savills’ Robert Sevim and Kelly Givens negotiated the deal for WFLD, while MB Real Estate’s Mark Buth, Steve Hennessy, Ellen Trager and Ashley Harrison represented the owners of Michigan Plaza.

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Wolf Point East, a new 698-unit luxury apartment building in River North, hit the 95%-leased milestone and has exceeded pro forma rents, according to Luxury Living Chicago Realty, which leases the tower. Wolf Point East was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects in partnership with Pappageorge Haymes Partners. 

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American Bear Logistics, an ocean freight transportation company, signed a lease for 57K SF at 1475 Thorndale Ave. in northwest suburban Itasca. Nick Krejci of Darwin Realty/CORFAC International represented the tenant.

FINANCING

Associated Bank completed a $26.7M loan to Shorewood Development Group for the acquisition and revitalization of the Market Meadows Shopping Center, a 148K SF Jewel-anchored shopping center at 1201 South Naper Blvd. in west suburban Naperville. The developer will also construct a new three-tenant building of nearly 7K SF at the northwest corner of 75th Street and Naper Boulevard as well as a Lock-Up self-storage facility on the property. Daniel Barrins of Associated Bank’s Commercial Real Estate group handled the loan arrangements and closing.

Courtesy of Premier Design + Build Group

Premier’s new Buffalo Grove headquarters

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

Premier Design + Build Group began designing a 52K SF facility in Buffalo Grove that will serve as its new corporate headquarters. The firm outgrew its previous headquarters and temporarily relocated to a Schaumburg building. In addition, the company will open a downtown Chicago office this summer to serve clients in the central business district.

Ashley Capital started construction on a new speculative 397K SF industrial building at 11101 Enterprise Way in Sturtevant, Wisconsin. This will be the third building constructed at the firm’s Enterprise Business Park, and it’s just one of the many spec projects recently launched in Southeast Wisconsin as developers take advantage of the growing demand for space from e-commerce, food and logistics companies looking to serve both the Chicago and Milwaukee metro areas.

Courtesy of Ashley Capital

11101 Enterprise Way in Sturtevant, Wisconsin.

“Several years ago, we acquired 90 acres of farmland along I-94 between Chicago and Milwaukee,” Ashley Capital Vice President Gary Rosecrans said. “The first building we constructed is a 376K SF speculative distribution building. The second building we built is a 438K SF speculative distribution building. It is finished and occupied by Amazon. This was a catalytic project that resulted in the construction of our next speculative warehouse building, which will be completed in December 2020 and is now available for pre-leasing.” 

Enterprise Business Park will have more than 1.3M SF of Class-A industrial space when fully developed, Rosecrans added. The new building will bring Ashley’s industrial property portfolio in Racine County to more than 1.9M SF.

Transaction velocity has been picking up in the submarket, which includes Racine and Kenosha counties.

“Net absorption between January and March totaled 1.3M SF, the greatest quarterly tally in Southeast Wisconsin since the second quarter of 2015,” according to Colliers International.

During the previous seven quarters, developers finished 12 speculative construction projects totaling 3.4M SF, and by the first quarter, those buildings were 62.4% occupied, Colliers added.

John Sharpe and Tom Boyle of Lee & Associates and Terry McMahon and Cody Ziegler of Cushman & Wakefield | Boerke are marketing agents for Ashley’s newest project.

“The local submarket has a large number of industrial space users that continue to do well notwithstanding the current economic environment,” Boyle said. “It is also a magnet for companies in Chicago, Milwaukee and outside the region.”

EXECS

Commercial real estate veterans Rick Goldman and Justin Pathmann launched REthink Owner Solutions, a development and construction management advisory firm. The Highland Park, Illinois-based REthink already has a roster of projects, including a new senior housing project in Mount Prospect that is scheduled to break ground and the renovation of the Highland Park Public Library. Goldman for the last 19 years was an owner of Pacific Construction Services. Pathmann has more than 20 years of construction management experience, and in 2017 his former firm, Pathmann Construction Management, merged with Pacific Construction Services.

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Ryan Cos. US Inc. promoted Robert Wehner to vice president of pre-construction in its Chicago office. Wehner, who joined Ryan Cos. in 2004, will now lead pre-construction for the company’s Great Lakes region, which includes Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

SALES

An affiliate of New York City-based investment firm KKR bought Amazon’s 1.5M SF fulfillment center in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for $176M, a new record for an industrial property in the Chicago region, according to a report in the Milwaukee Business Journal. The two-building complex, along with another property in the Charlotte, North Carolina, region, was part of a $260M portfolio deal, according to a press release from KKR. KTR Capital Partners developed the Kenosha buildings in 2013 and 2014 and was acquired by Prologis in 2015. Amazon will keep expanding its Southeast Wisconsin footprint in 2020, including with a 2.5M SF fulfillment center in Oak Creek that will open later this year.

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Courtesy of NAI Hiffman

5115 South Millard Ave.

Chicago-based Karis Cold Storage paid $7.5M for 5115 South Millard Ave., a 42K SF modern freezer building in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood. John Basile of NAI Hiffman represented Karis in the transaction and completed a six-year lease with the sole tenant, Moesle Meat Co., a meat wholesaler. Karis is a newly launched private investment and development company, and this is its first investment in the cold storage sector.

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A private investor paid almost $2.5M for Super 8 Pleasant Prairie, a 60-room hotel at 7601 118th Ave. in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Ebrahim Valliani, John Yurich, Allan Miller and Chris Gomes of Marcus & Millichap’s Chicago Oak Brook, Austin and Dallas offices marketed the property for the seller, also a private investor. The Marcus & Millichap team also secured and represented the buyer.

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A partnership between Venture One Real Estate and Kovitz Investment Group closed on the acquisition of a 100K SF industrial building at 111 Washington Blvd. in suburban Mundelein. The single-tenant building, constructed in 1973, was 100% leased at acquisition. Cushman & Wakefield’s Marc Samuels represented the seller.

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A private investment group closed on the off-market acquisition of a 23K SF, single-tenant industrial property at 320-350 Industrial Drive in South Elgin. Entre Commercial Realty’s Cory Kay and Mike DeSerto represented the buyer. NAI Hiffman’s Bruce Granger represented the sellers.

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Monument Capital purchased the 192-unit Bartlett Lake Apartments for about $17.8M. Essex Realty Group brokered the sale; it was hired by the court-appointed receiver of Northridge Holdings Ltd. to sell the property after Addison, Illinois-based Northridge, along with several other entities, were accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of being involved in a Ponzi scheme that included Bartlett Lakes Apartments. Essex’s Doug Imber, Kate Varde, Clay Maxfield and Jaimie Steinher represented the receiver, and their colleagues Brian Kochendorfer and Brian Karmowski represented Monument Capital.

Courtesy of DeKalb Economic Development Corp.

Facebook’s plan for ChicagoWest Business Center.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

Facebook officials said last Tuesday they will build an $800M data center on 505 acres of Krusinski Construction Co.’s ChicagoWest Business Center in DeKalb, Illinois, about 58 miles west of Chicago. Krusinski will provide the utility infrastructure and roadwork improvements necessary. Facebook will be able to take advantage of a new state tax incentive program exempting new data centers from sales taxes on the wide array of equipment each needs to regularly replace.

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Principle Construction Corp. remodeled and added onto a 408K SF industrial building at 6600 River Road in suburban Hodgkins. Building owner Midwest Industrial Funds hired Principle to remove one side of the existing building and install a new precast panel skin. The Principle team also added an 86K SF truck dock and a 50-car parking lot. Principle’s Mark Augustyn served as principal on the project, with Darrin Dehmlow as senior project manager and Mark Frane as superintendent. Harris Architects designed the remodel and addition.

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Bridge Development Partners partnered with Cabot Properties to acquire 1307 North Lombard Road in west suburban Lombard and develop it into Bridge Point I-355, a 133K SF industrial facility. The partners bought the vacant 7.25-acre site from Location Finders International. Bridge Point I-355 will feature 32-foot clear heights and parking for 170 cars and is scheduled to deliver in Q4. The seller was represented by JLL’s Dominic Carbonari, Frank Griffin and Kate Coxworth.       

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Courtesy of Evergreen Real Estate Group

Garden House of Maywood

Chicago-based Evergreen Real Estate Group completed its $7M renovation of Garden House of Maywood, a 144-unit affordable senior rental community in Maywood, a western suburb of Chicago. Housing and Human Development Corp., a nonprofit organization formed to develop and acquire affordable housing for low-income seniors and families, owns the 10-story building at 515 South 2nd Ave. Evergreen has managed the community since 2017, the year before HHDC acquired it with tax credits that also helped fund the capital improvements.

THIS AND THAT

Comcast will build the network infrastructure for Veridian, a 225-acre mixed-use campus under development in northwest suburban Schaumburg. Veridian will include residential and office space, hotel, entertainment, dining and urban-style street retail districts. Comcast will offer internet speeds of up to 100 gigabits per second to businesses located in the development, company officials said.