Amazon Big-Box Retail Location Gets Approval: The Chicago Deal Sheet
Amazon won approval for its supersized foray into brick-and-mortar retail in the Chicago suburbs.
The Orland Park Board of Trustees voted 5-2 in favor of Amazon’s 229K SF big-box store during its meeting on Monday. The retail titan is taking its largest swing to date at in-person shopping after it scrapped or slowed down the rollout of multiple previous concepts, including bookstores, shopping mall kiosks and apparel stores.
The store, at the southwest corner of 159th Street and LaGrange Road, is set to be larger than a Walmart Supercenter, which averages around 179K SF. It is slated to offer groceries, household items and other products, and it will also feature a limited warehouse component designed to support on-site operations.
"We regularly test new experiences designed to make customers’ lives better and easier every day, including physical stores," an Amazon spokesperson told Bisnow last week.
PEOPLE
The Inland Real Estate Group tapped Matthew Fries to serve as CEO and president of Inland Real Estate Investment Corp. Fries will be responsible for leading the execution of Inland Investments’ long-term business strategy. He will oversee Inland Investments’ public and private investment platforms and drive the development of retail investor-focused solutions leveraging its tax-advantaged strategies and vertically integrated commercial real estate expertise.
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Stream Realty Partners hired Brian Reaney in its Chicago office as senior vice president. He will focus on office and industrial tenant representation and help continue expanding Stream’s tenant advisory platform in the Chicago market and beyond. Reaney brings more than a decade of CRE experience, most recently working at Newmark.
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Draper and Kramer added Jacob Gauptman to its commercial finance group as a producer. He comes to the company with more than a decade of experience in CRE debt, with roughly half of that time specializing in Federal Housing Administration/Department of Housing and Urban Development multifamily financing.
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Redmond promoted Giacomo Tusa and Elliot Hilgert to project executives. The company said the promotions will help to drive Redmond’s continued growth, enable the execution of complex work and deliver results for clients locally and nationwide.
SALES
A joint venture between Eastham Capital and Bender Cos. acquired The Element, a 509-unit garden-style community in Mount Prospect, for $75.2M. The renovation plan includes roughly $5M to upgrade unit interiors, building systems and exterior areas, building on upgrades completed by prior ownership. The building is 95% occupied, with average rents of $1,590 per month.
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An Illinois-based private equity group bought 3800 N. Milwaukee Ave., a multitenant flex industrial property in Irving Park, for about $17M. The 128K SF property features a wide tenant mix, including a daycare, multiple indoor sports facilities and an auto-related office and service operator. At the time of sale, the property was 98% leased. Greenstone Partners’ Danny Spitz and Brewster Hague represented the seller and procured the buyer.
LEASES
Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors signed a 10K SF deal to expand and relocate to The Bell at 225 W. Randolph St. in the Central Loop. Savills' John Goodman and Brandon Nasatir led the real estate process for Blueprint and were supported by Eric Feinberg and Isabel Schwartz.
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TransLoop will nearly triple the size of its Chicago headquarters, signing a 44K SF agreement to move to 350 N. Orleans St. The new office will allow the company to add up to 200 new jobs in Chicago, while TransLoop continues to scale hiring across all of its office locations nationwide.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Chicago Southwest Development Corp. completed the first phase of the environmental cleanup for the future home of St. Anthony Hospital on the Focal Point Community Campus at the corner of 31st Street and Kedzie Avenue on the Southwest Side. The first stage of the cleanup included removing old concrete and soil, exposing buried foundations from previous structures, subgrading areas for future paving and drainage, and installing clean soil and erosion control systems.
