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Musings on commercial real estate transactions in Chicago and beyond
Recent Posts Tagged With 'chicago'
What is $190 million among friends? A LOT of money!
That is how much Crain's estimates that Teng & Associates has plunked into the Waterview Tower/Shangi-La Hotel development on Wacker Drive. Other than a $20 million bridge loan from LaSalle Bank,...
And here go retail vacancy rates
This is before Steve & Barry's, but Crain's reports a hefty jump in vacancy rates in the second quarter. This is not developers bringing space on line, either. Some of the projects I wrote about...
Is Orland Park blowing its new downtown? The Main Street Traingle may just be a sliver
I think they might be. Reports are that the village has decided to put off any bids for a new developer to take on the $100 million project until the fall. Why, why, why?Related Midwest, based in Ch...
Downtown office vacancies are.....down???
You read that right, and by no small number either. Vacancies dropped by 0.6% in the last quarter and demand improved to boot.Now, before you get too excited, let's remember that portions of two big ...
Chicago legal industry thoughts
An interesting (possible) incongruity I am finding: Half of GCs surveyed are planning to do more work in house and cut back on law firm usage (one big reason -- the cost of hiring BigLaw firms to do ...
Legal term of the day: vertical subdivision
Generally speaking, this is when you take a skyscraper and carve it up into separate legal properties so you can have different owners of a building if you wanted. Of course, this is exceptionally co...
Half price sale on a CTA station at Block 37
I'm kidding, of course. But hey, the CTA station at Block 37 will now cost more than $320 million, way up from the $213 million budgeted. I think that's half of what Soldier Field (or the once-landm...
Does this mean the Spire will rise?
I have been an unabashed fan of the Chicago Spire project. And the Tribune reports today that 30% of the condos are sold. They made a point of saying these were sales, not refundable deposits.Now, I...
Chicago retail leasing down...what does it mean?
Eddie Baeb has a good story in this week's Crain's about demand for retail leasing going down by 22%, led by discount grocers and discount stores. As the story said:“Stores like Target, Wal-Mart an...
Ground leases...oh joy, oh rapture
I've done a ground lease deal or two in my time. They are fun. But if you are buying a building subject to a ground lease you have to make sure you comply with the lease terms or you may have to fac...
Spire misses tax deadline -- but they aren't the first to do so, either
Tom Corfman has a story at Crain's this morning stating:Garrett Kelleher failed to pay nearly $430,000 in property taxes due nearly two months ago on the proposed site of the Spire, even as the Irish...
OK, I can finally talk about this one
I have said time and again that I do not make news, I just report it. So, if I know about a deal (whether I am working on it or not), I don't leak it. Not my job, and I do not even want to think abo...
Hey, hey -- some good, balanced journalism!
Robert Manor is now covering the commercial real estate beat for the Tribune. So far I have liked was he's been writing, but today's column might be his best yet. Why? Objectivity! Instead of gloo...
All I can say is "Wow"
If you could see this now....I know this property is in Bucktown. I know Bucktown is hotter than hot for development. I know prices can be high there.But $767 per square foot? I repeat: wow. If th...
How about golden arches on top while you are at it?
I've always been intrigued by Chicago's Marina City, the corncob-looking twin towers at State Street and the Chicago River designed by Bertrand Goldberg and built in 1964. As a purist, I did not like ...
$386 a foot - not bad for a "down market"
Here's a little Chicago tidbit I stumbled across: a Hines L.P. fund just picked up One North Wacker Drive from a German investment fund advised by RREEF for $540 million, or $386/sf.Let's see: great l...
Chicago = Dubai West?
Here's two reasons why:1. The only skyline in the world that rivals Chicago's, in my humble opinion, is Dubai's. What they have done there is amazing. And even though I am not a big modern architec...
Where is the office leasing market going?
That's a good question. Some people are advising big tenants to lock in now while the going is good and the economy supposedly soft. Others are saying, especially here in Chicago, that a big glut wi...
In this market. money talks and you know what walks....
Up until this credit crunch hit there were a lot of highly-levered deals going on out there, some better than others. Harry Macklowe can tell you all about them. And sellers were willing to tolerate...
Chicago says - stop, soak the sellers too!
It looks like the Chicago City Council may have the sellers pick up the burden of the big transfer tax increase that will take effect April 1. Much as I don't like to see the tax increase, sellers ar...
Retailers fleeing to the city?
That's what the Sun-Times said yesterday.Since my clients are doing deals near downtown I guess that's good news for me. But the rents are going to be much pricier, with the tradeoff that there are p...
Chicago offices in 2008 -- enjoy the vacancy rates while you can
Marcus & Millichap predicts another decline in Class A downtown vacancies in 2008, and rising rents to boot. That's good news if you own a trophy building downtown, but not if you own Class B or ...
The latest on Hotel 71
I made a promise that I would blog about Hotel 71 when I saw stories about it, and I am a man of my word.The latest is that a JV of Canyon Capital and New York-based investment fund Brickman have obta...
More on the Trump Tower Chicago lawsuits
Here's the Trib's latest take on people suing over the owner reneging on friends and family deals at Trump Tower. I guess the only thing worse than bad PR is no PR. One the plaintiffs is the former ...
Taxes, taxes, taxes...
I do not own property in the City of Chicago, but my clients sure do. And they are about to get taxed even more for doing their business of buying and selling property. Yup. We're talking a 40% incr...
All about the clients...
It was great to see another nice write-up in Crain's about my client -- and landlord -- Structured Development LLC, and their money partner (which I used to represent before going out on my own), Comm...
Chicago buildings on the market...
Here's a short list in Crain's. The story features Congress Center in the West Loop area, a building with which I have more than a passing familiarity. Triple Net Properties (now known as Grubb &...
The whole world's buying...our dirt, again
Here's an interesting story on a Spanish billionaire, Amancio Ortega, buying 730-750 North Michigan Avenue for $350 million. Why is it interesting?Even in this "down" market, the seller did not budge...
Cubs Care Park: from New City to Humboldt Park
The Sun-Times reports that Cubs Care Park, formerly at the now-demolished New City YMCA, is going to be relocated to Humboldt Park. This follows up on the promise that the park would eventually be re...
Hmmm...buy a car or 8.27 sf at The Chicago Spire?
I'm not buying either, but both go on sale today. The Smart, with a base price of $11,590, starts shipping today. It's a nice little car from what I can tell. And it looks like it is sold out for 20...