This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

More than 270 acres, capable of accommodating up to 3.3M SF of industrial and corporate headquarters space, have been sold since 2017 or are under contract at the DuPage Airport Authority’s 640-acre DuPage Business Center in West Chicago. According to NAI Hiffman research reports, only the Interstate 80 corridor has absorbed as much land as West Chicago during that time frame. 

NAI Hiffman brokers marketing the park attribute this activity to four key factors:

• A repositioning of the park at the end of 2017 that opened up flexible development opportunities to the market.
• A lack of available land for development in the submarket.
• The pro-business support of West Chicago, the DuPage Airport Authority and a number of other local entities.
• A bullish industrial real estate landscape.

“The combination of these factors has been the perfect storm for a sustained run of activity that has seen 70% of available land at the DuPage Business Center in varying stages of the disposition process,” NAI Hiffman Executive Vice President Mark Moran said. Along with John Whitehead and Jim Adler, he has marketed the park since 2017.

The demand for space remains strong, including in the Fox Valley Corridor, where the vacancy rate is 4.44%, according to the most recent statistics from NAI Hiffman. One year ago, the rate was 3.67%, and in 2017, it was 6.38%. In the neighboring Interstate 88 corridor, the vacancy rate is 5.09%. One year ago, the rate was 4.82%, and in 2017, it was 4.83%.

With sales totaling 75 acres that already have closed in 2019, and two additional parcels totaling 48 acres under contract, NAI Hiffman said 110 acres remain available for development at DuPage Business Center. Lot sizes range from five to 46 acres. Depending on uses and design configurations, this means sites likely could accommodate users from 50K SF to 800K SF.

“Successful projects in the Interstate 88 and Fox Valley submarkets have historically been in the 200K to 500K SF range,” Moran said. “Our park is uniquely positioned to capitalize on that segment of the market.”

EXECS

Truss, a marketplace for commercial real estate, hired Andrew Lisy as its vice president of product. Lisy will lead the product team, including Truss CRE, its new platform for brokers. He was previously the director of product at Groupon, where he led supply and merchant experience. He holds bachelor’s degrees in computer science and finance from MIT. 

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Avison Young hired Adam Haefner and Brian Colson as Rosemont, Illinois-based principals with mandates to help grow the firm’s industrial brokerage practice group across Chicagoland. Haefner will lead a team focused on representing landlords in the Interstate 55, Interstate 355 and Interstate 80 submarkets, and Colson will focus on landlords in the O’Hare and west suburban submarkets. Most recently, Haefner was a director of brokerage services with Darwin Realty, and Colson was an executive vice president with NAI Hiffman. Also joining Avison Young in suburban Chicago from Darwin Realty are Zeke Rowan and Martin Mikaitis.

LEASES

CenterPoint Properties appointed Podolsky Circle CORFAC International as the exclusive leasing agent for its 992K SF industrial facility at 900 Knell Road in Montgomery, Illinois, just southwest of Aurora. Adam Tarantur, Steven Tick and Austin Vanderstappen will lead the brokerage team. Situated on 49 acres, 4.5 miles south of the Interstate 88 and Orchard Road interchange, the property has for the past 10 years been leased to Suncast Corp., which will vacate the property at the end of January.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

PREMIER Design + Build Group, on behalf of Bridge Development Partners, led the demolition of a 695-foot former radio broadcast tower on July 18, and a smaller auxiliary tower of approximately 300 feet on July 16, paving the way for Bridge Point Itasca, a new mixed-use development at the southeast corner of Devon Avenue and Rohlwing Road in northwest suburban Itasca. WBBM Newsradio had broadcast from the site since 1942. As of July 14, WBBM now uses a tower and transmitter with WSCR in suburban Bloomingdale. Bridge Development Partners tapped PREMIER to provide design and build services for the new development, which will include three new multi-use industrial buildings totaling 741K SF and two new retail lots.

SALES

Inland Real Estate Commercial Brokerage closed the sale of a five-acre site at Route 31 and Bull Valley Road in suburban McHenry for more than $1M. Inland’s Paul Montes and Eric Spiess facilitated the transaction on behalf of the seller. The buyers, a partnership between Leo Brown Group of Indiana and Ignite Medical Resorts of Missouri, plan to construct a medical resort-luxury rehabilitation center on the land.

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Marcus & Millichap closed the sale of Comfort Suites, a 160-room hospitality property in suburban Schiller Park. Ebrahim Valliani, Allan Miller, Chris Gomes, Jake Erickson and Jared Plamann, of Marcus & Millichap’s Chicago-Oak Brook, Dallas, Austin and Minneapolis offices, marketed the property on behalf of the seller and represented the buyer.

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Essex Realty Group closed the $2.5M sale of 1444 West Erie St., a vintage 13-unit multifamily property in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood. The sellers, a venture of three partners, owned the property for more than 20 years. Both seller and buyer were represented by Jordan Multack, Clay Maxfield, Jim Darrow, Doug Imber, Jordan Gottlieb and Kate Varde.

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Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors, a brokerage firm specializing in retail sales, arranged the $1.7M pre-sale of a single-tenant, 22K SF ALDI built this year at Litchfield Plaza shopping center in Litchfield, Illinois. This is Hanley’s seventh ALDI investment sold or on the market in the last 12 months. ALDI has a 15-year, absolute triple-net ground lease in place that has rental increases every five years and renewal options.

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Kiser Group's Noah Birk and Aaron Sklar brokered the $2.4M sale of 8301 South Paulina, a 26-unit multifamily property in Auburn Gresham, to JVB Holdings Chicago. That is about $93K per unit.

THIS AND THAT

The Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate, Roosevelt University, will honor Gerald Fogelson at its 18th annual Real Estate Gala on Nov. 7 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago. Fogelson is the CEO of the Fogelson Group of Cos., chairman of Central Station Development Corp. and co-founder of the Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate. He recently unveiled plans for a megadevelopment in Chicago, One Central, a multibillion-dollar project that would rise over railroad tracks west of Soldier Field in the South Loop. The plan for One Central calls for a mix of residential, office and retail space over 34 acres from McFetridge Drive south to 20th Street. 

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The Chicago office of CBRE and the Chicago Cubs hosted the 12th Annual CBRE Charity Bash at Wrigley Field and raised $500K. This is the fourth year that CBRE and the Cubs have partnered on this charity initiative, which has raised a total of $1.85M. More than 1,500 CBRE professionals, their clients, families and guests were in attendance, along with Cubs manager Joe Maddon, as well as Cubs players Ryan Dempster and David Ross. This year’s event featured an All-Star Kids clinic led by Cubs players Jon Lester, Cole Hamels and Kyle Schwarber. More than 150 kids participated in the hourlong clinic.