Recent Posts
The Dirt Lawyer's Blog
Return To Blog Listing
Musings on commercial real estate transactions in Chicago and beyond
Recent Posts Tagged With 'retail'
But will they make the portions larger?
I don't think that's humanly possible, and it might even be actionable. What am I talking about? Buca, Inc., known for its family-style Buca di Beppo restaurants, has been acquired by Planet Hollywo...
Finding money in vacant space
When times are tougher it pays to be a little creative. And since I've been working on some sign leasing lately I found this story interesting.In short? Outdoor ad companies are paying retail landlo...
Bye-bye, Bennigans
No more Monte Cristo sandwiches for me, I guess. Here's another retailer biting the dust, this time in the food category. According to this report, Bennigan's, once a favorite chain of mine, has clo...
Best Buy - my new source for drum equipment?
You probably don't know this about me, but I also dabble as a percussionist, my primary instrument being the timpani (yes, the big kettle shaped drums in the back). And my father was a professional m...
Mid-Week Tidbits
Things have been crazy, so I've been remiss in not posting daily. I'll try to improve that. A few items from other blogs caught my eye this morning.One is the passage of a green building code in Cal...
Wal-Mart Bombs? No, not really.
Thanks to Counter Culture for pointing out this cool video on Wal-Mart's expansion. It reminds me of the movie War Games. Global thermonuclear war, anyone? Or how about a nice game of chess?...
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...
Another retail chain in trouble? A line on Steve & Barry's and some thoughts on defensive leasing
Boy, they weren't kidding about retail woes. Now I am reading that Steve & Barry's, a cheap chic chain, is talking to Weil Gotschal and thinking about closing 1/3 of its stores as it decides on...
Meanwhile, back in retail...and law law land....
I was sad to see that Whitehall Jewelers is calling it a day. But I guess it might have been inevitable. The family of a college classmate used to own Whitehall so I always cheered it on. On another...
Construction loan delinquencies rising
Construction loans, as we all know, can be very risky. That is even more so in a softer market. Condos and single family residential appear to be the big, big culprit here (13.6% and 10.8% respectiv...
Why do I take vacations anyway?
You end up working twice as hard when you get back.Some random Monday thoughts:Lisa Michelle Galley has some thoughtful comments on green lending in a post from yesterday. (P.S. -- Lisa, I agree with...
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...
Thanks for stopping by, but now go...
...take a look at this month's Retail Traffic magazine. Normally I breeze through a magazine in a few minutes, but this is the second month in a row that I was compelled to read every page of this pu...
Most sectors holding steady in Q1...is this a bottom?
Hard to tell. But Moody's, through NREI, reports that most sectors held their own in the first quarter, with limited service hotels being the notable exception. You could plausibly argue that this i...
Dominick's - your new lifestyle grocer
I've never been a big user of Dominick's Finer Foods. Why? Location. Growing up, I had a Jewel right down the street. The same is the case were I live now, but Kroger has gotten most of my busines...
Scary times for retail landlords?
That's what this USA Today story (via AOL) implies. The list of retailers on credit watch is a veritable Who's Who of the industry, including "Eddie Bauer, Sbarro, Guitar Center, Blockbuster, Six Fla...
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...
Commercial construction slowdown? Depends.
Well, I guess this is why I am the lawyer and not the business guy. The Journal reports that real spending in nonresidential construction is declining and that there maybe a glut of certain types of ...
Monday Musings
I'm not feeling 100% (yet) today, but I have been slacking here and think I need to write something! So here are some soundbites....The Economist is backing up all the intuition about the cowboy days...
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...
Glorious Republic of Kazakhstan to have new emporium of semi-disposable Swedish furnishings and meatballs (what are meatballs anyway?)
Sorry...could not resist this one. I have a feeling Borat will not be at the grand opening. Actually, and seriously, IKEA is going to spend $500 million on malls in Almaty and Astana, the capital an...
WSJ asks: are we on a retail real estate cliff?
There was a thought-provoking article in the Journal today about whether retail real estate is one the same cliff that residential real estate is. After all, Centro Properties teeters on the edge, Ta...
You think two or three Starbucks per block might be overkill?
Starbucks has announced the inevitable: unspecified store closings. The return of Howard Schultz probably precipitated this. I like Starbucks (or do you call it Charbucks?) enough, but not enough to...
I love the media....
The Los Angeles Times has a good story today about the current state of the California market. The main point? Sale prices are down and many sellers are holding right now rather than selling. The p...
Chicagoland retail: "slight" of hand
The latest on the retail market is mostly slight: slight increase in vacancy, slight increase in rents, and slightly more total space on the market. The only non-slight change is in the amount of re...
More malls on steroids in Asia, but perhaps not where you'd expect
Megamalls in Asia are hardly news, but when they are in my wife's hometown that's news to me. Taytay, Rizal is just outside Metro Manila. It is a densely-populated municipality with a population of ...
Optimistic words from John Bucksbaum
Here's an interesting quote from the head honcho at GGP from this GlobeSt.com story:"Our new rents continue to increase as demand for quality remains high. We’ve completed new and renewal leases fo...
G&E says: relax, people
Grubb & Ellis thinks we will not see a recession, but some slowing in the 2008 real estate market. (Could it conceivably been going faster than in, say, 2006 anyway?) The main conclusion is that...
Macy's? What's that? Some New York store, right?
Well, Macy's did not get sold (yet), as was the rumor back in July. And now the company, seeing sales in the tank, is trying to revitalize its flagship Chicago store on State Street.This is not a ver...