This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

Chicago-based industrial and logistics developer Dayton Street Partners plans to buy three land sites in Portage, Indiana, totaling about 42 acres, where it will develop DSP Crossroads Portage, a three-building project totaling 538K SF of warehouse/distribution space, according to Newmark, which represents the sellers.

It’s another sign that the record-breaking expansion going on in the industrial sector is leading developers from across Chicagoland to start considering Northwest Indiana as a possible hub for distribution.

“We are excited to make this move into the Northwest Indiana industrial market, which has strong fundamentals and growing demand from logistics and distribution related tenants,” DSP Managing Principal Howard Wedren said in a press release. “Our DSP Crossroads Portage project, which is just 30 miles from Chicago, is well-positioned for industrial and logistics users, featuring incredibly high visibility, frontage on I-94 and easy access to I-80, I-90 and I-65.”

Newmark Senior Managing Director Corey Chase, in cooperation with associate Chris Hill, represents the undisclosed sellers. Upon closing, Chase and Hill will market the buildings for lease or sale on behalf of DSP.

According to Newmark Research, developers will this year deliver almost 1M SF of new industrial space in the submarket, of which 420K SF has already been leased.

“As demand for logistics and distribution product ramps up in the Chicagoland area, similar demand and development has begun to pick up in Northwest Indiana as a result,” Chase said in a release. “This site represents a rare opportunity: a large, contiguous land site with highway frontage availability in Northwest Indiana.”

EXECS

SmithGroup hired Susanne Buchberger as director of business development at its Chicago office. She plans to expand the design firm’s portfolio in higher education, health, urban design and other sectors. Buchberger comes to SmithGroup from Booth Hansen, where she served as director of business development.

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Kiser Group promoted Danny Mantis from adviser to director. Mantis joined the multifamily brokerage in 2015, and he has recently focused on serving suburban Chicago clients. Prior to joining Kiser Group, he worked as a commercial credit analyst, underwriting and qualifying commercial real estate loan requests.

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CA Ventures promoted Tony DiBiase, a tenured member of CA’s leadership team, to president of its residential division across the Americas, a position he has held since March on an interim basis. DiBiase will spearhead the company's U.S. multifamily investment strategy as well as help grow its Latin American portfolio.

SALES

Stamford, Connecticut-based Spirit Investment Partners, in partnership with Irvine, California-based The Bascom Group, acquired the 415 Premier Apartments at 415 West Howard St. in north suburban Evanston for $49M. The 221-unit, 17-story tower built in 2008 is adjacent to the Howard CTA station and contains a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments. The acquisition closed on July 21. Dan Cohen of CBRE represented the seller. Peter Marino, also of CBRE, arranged the acquisition financing through Rialto Capital Management.

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Ten Capital Management acquired Two Conway, a 120K SF office building in Conway Park, an office campus in north suburban Lake Forest. Pembroke IV is the co-general partner on the transaction. The price paid was not disclosed, but TCM acquired the adjacent One Conway, a 105K SF building, for $19.35M in November 2016, also with Pembroke IV. Each property has more than 50K SF of available contiguous space. The new owners plan to add an outdoor amenity area to both buildings, and, perhaps, a covered walkway to connect the two properties.

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Bridge Industrial acquired a 12-acre site at 555 Howard Ave. in suburban Des Plaines, where it plans to develop Bridge Point Des Plaines — an industrial facility with between 184K SF and 227K SF. The acquisition, brokered by Rick Daly of Darwin Realty, was a sale-leaseback transaction with Nu-Way Industries, a metal fabricator that will continue as a tenant while searching for a new facility. After Nu-Way vacates the building, Bridge will demolish the current facility and begin construction on the new facility.

LEASES

Irvine Co. signed several new and expanded leases totaling nearly 120K SF at its trio of downtown office towers: One North Wacker, 71 South Wacker and 300 North LaSalle. The deals brought occupancy in the company’s Chicago portfolio to 92%. Some of the leases include:

• TradeLink, a trading and investment advisory firm, renewed for 31K SF at 71 South Wacker.

• Stifel, a brokerage and investment banking firm, renewed and expanded at One North Wacker to 29K SF.  

• The Alexander Group, a management consultant, expanded at One North Wacker to 19K SF.

The Irvine Co. entered the Chicago market in 2010, when it acquired 71 South Wacker, a 48-story, 1.5M SF tower. The company acquired the 60-story 300 North LaSalle in 2014.

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Chemical firm Dober signed an industrial lease for 100K SF at 11230 Katherine’s Crossing in suburban Woodridge. Walter Murphy of Lee & Associates of Illinois represented Dober and Sean Henrick of Cushman & Wakefield represented the owner, Bristol Group.

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Panorama, a new 140-unit luxury apartment building by BlitzLake at 918 West School St. in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, hit 100% leased, according to Luxury Living Chicago Realty, which handles marketing and leasing for the property. It began leasing in mid-January of this year.

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Alliance Ground International signed a new lease for 253K SF at 1717 Busse Road in northwest suburban Elk Grove Village. Darwin Realty/CORFAC International’s Jeffrey Provenza and Todd Hendricks represented the air cargo handling service, which now occupies the entire building. Cushman & Wakefield’s Britt Casey and Al Caruana represented building owner Duke Realty.

FINANCING

Newmark arranged a $147.5M loan for Angelo Gordon and Glenstar Properties to refinance Presidents Plaza, an 830K SF office complex at 8600-8700 West Bryn Mawr Ave. in Chicago. The owners recently completed a $20M renovation of the property. Newmark’s team was led by Jordan Roeschlaub, Dustin Stolly, Chris Kramer, Nick Scribani, Eden Abraham and Ben Kroll. The loan was provided by Bank of America.

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JLL Capital Markets arranged an $18.5M refinancing for 2625 Butterfield Office Plaza, an approximately 215K SF recently renovated office building in suburban Oak Brook.

Working on behalf of the borrower, an affiliate of Clear Height Properties, JLL placed the floating-rate loan with Busey Bank. Since acquiring the property at 2625 Butterfield Road in 2018, the owners have invested nearly $4M in building improvements. JLL’s Christopher Carroll, Lucas Borges and Clayton Lesniak handled the deal.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

Pre-leasing is underway for Sixteen30, a new $60M, 284-unit garden-style rental community being developed by Wingspan Development Group at 14750 South Wallin Drive in suburban Plainfield, about 35 miles southwest of Chicago. Designed by Chicago-based Studio 222 Architects, Sixteen30 offers studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units, and will welcome its first move-ins this summer. Wingspan’s sister company, Nicholas & Associates, is handling the construction of Sixteen30.

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Premier Design + Build Group broke ground on a 447K SF speculative industrial building at 9403 136th Ave. in Bristol, a town in the southeast Wisconsin submarket. It will be HSA Commercial Real Estate’s third new building at its Bristol Highlands Commerce Center, near the Illinois-Wisconsin border and Interstate 94. The two firms kicked off Phase 1 in June 2020, and they delivered a 157K SF warehouse and a 472K SF distribution center earlier this year.

Partners in Design is providing architectural design services for the new building, while Pinnacle Engineering Group and RA Smith provide the engineering. The project team expects to complete construction in Q1 2022. The Boerke Co. and Cushman & Wakefield are the brokers.