This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

EQ Office hired Michael Knott as the rebranded office firm's new chief financial officer. The move comes a month after the Blackstone-owned company changed its name from Equity Office and announced a shift in strategy.

Knott comes to EQ Office from a 16-year tenure at Green Street Advisors, where he most recently served as managing director. Knott will lead EQ Office's financial and business development strategies as the company partners with flex space providers and introduces new products to its office spaces. He will also further the company's technology initiatives around predictive analytics.

“Adding Michael as part our executive leadership team deeply aligns with where we’re taking the organization and our strategy,” EQ Office President and CEO Lisa Picard said in a statement. “Michael has great rigor and financial acumen, intellectual curiosity and brings broad experience having worked with nearly every asset type. He’s had a front row seat in watching our industry change for nearly 20 years and will collaborate with EQ leadership in furthering our strategies for driving value throughout our current portfolio and future investments.”

SALES

Clear Height Properties acquired a $30M, four-property, 522K SF suburban portfolio consisting of a suburban office building at 2625 Butterfield Road in Oak Brook, Elmhurst Metro Court at 747 North Church Road in Elmhurst, Tower Lane Business Park at 1050-1100 Tower Lane in Bensenville and Willowbrook Court at 625-701 Executive Drive in Willowbrook.

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Greenstone Partners’ Greg Dietz and Danny Spitz were the sole brokers in the sale of 4,600 SF of street-level retail at 114-120 North Halsted Street in the West Loop.

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Baum Realty Group’s Patrick Forkin represented the seller in the $1.9M sale of a Chipotle Mexican Grill at 1207 North Keller Drive in Effingham, Illinois. The property features a triple-net lease with Chipotle.

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Brown Commercial Group’s Mike Antonelli was the sole broker in the sale of a 31K SF industrial building at 310-330 Charles Court in West Chicago to Tag Fitness. The buyer will occupy a portion of the three-unit building and rent out the rest.

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Essex Realty Group’s Joe Scheck and Steven Livaditis represented the buyer, CIMA Investors, in the $7.5M sale of a single-tenant net-lease Walgreens property at 1180 Farnsworth in Aurora. The lease is triple net with no landlord responsibilities, and there are 12.5 years remaining on the initial term.

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Kiser Group completed the following transactions:

• Noah Birk and Aaron Sklar represented the seller, Foreit Properties, in the $1.7M sale of a 32-unit residential portfolio at 7754 South Colfax Ave., 7830 South Essex, 8109 South Colfax and 8120 South Colfax.
• Birk and Sklar were the sole brokers in the $490K sale of a six-unit building at 5728-30 South Indiana Ave. The buyer was Nicki Enterprises.
• Birk and Sklar were the sole brokers in the $420K sale of a 13-unit building at 6500-02 South Cottage Grove in Woodlawn. The buyer was Chicago Shore Fund and the seller was Ash Realty.
• Birk and Sklar represented the seller, Ash Realty, in the $260K sale of a six-unit building at 7250 South Yale in Englewood.
• Matt Halper represented the seller, Wintrust Mortgage, and Stevens Haen represented the buyer, Quality Living and Rentals, in the $225K sale of a three-unit apartment building at 6317 North Washtenaw.
• Birk and Halper were the sole brokers in the $435K sale of a six-unit apartment building at 2306 South 17th in North Riverside.

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Entre Commercial Real Estate’s Brian Bocci represented Miles Properties in the sale of a 12K SF facility in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Water Integrated Treatment Systems.

LEASES

MB Real Estate’s David Burkards represented Coyote Logistics in a 10-year lease extension of its headquarters at the Green Exchange building, 2545 West Diversey Ave. in Logan Square. The new lease brings the third-party logistics provider’s total footprint to 175K SF. The landlord is Baum Development.

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Millennium Properties’ Michael Mintz was the sole broker in a lease to a podiatrist and acupuncturist at Sheridan Health Center, 5310 North Sheridan Road in Edgewater.

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First Western Properties’ Paul Tsakiris and Fahim Lakhani were the sole brokers in a lease with Hair Unique Salon at 8100 South Stony Island Ave.

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Colliers International’s Dan Arends represented Elkay in a 47K SF lease at 1333 Butterfield Road in Downers Grove.

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Entre Commercial Realty’s Cory Kay and Dan Benassi represented the landlord, Lsref3 Navy Reo, in a 45K SF lease with the Illinois Department of Health and Human Services at 3301 Wireton Road in Blue Island.

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Cushman & Wakefield’s Britt Casey and Jeff Mantella represented The Silverman Group, and JLL’s Sam Durkin represented JDS Industries, in an 87K SF lease at 350 Church St. in Addison. JDS is relocating from Elk Grove Village.

FINANCING

Berkadia’s Michael Slovitt and Chris Blechschmidt secured $48.5M in refinancing on behalf of Cedar St. for its redevelopment of the Bush Temple of Music at 800-12 North Clark St. in River North.

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HFF’s Christopher Knight and Greg LaBine arranged a $21M construction financing package for the development of a 42-unit luxury apartment development at Norweta Row in Lincoln Park. Knight and LaBine worked with the developer to secure the loan through Citizens Bank. Norweta also includes 31 condos that share amenities with the apartments, but were not a part of the collateral for this loan.

HIRES/PROMOTIONS

Millennium Properties hired Vince Pine as a broker. Pine is making the transition to commercial real estate from the legal field, where he focused on all aspects of commercial real estate, including the leasing, acquisition and sale of over $1B in transactions.

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Principle Construction hired Phil VanDuyne as director of construction services. He came to Principle from Simpson Strong-Tie in West Chicago, where he was a capital project consultant and owners representative.

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Charles Vincent George Architects hired James Thormeyer as senior project manager. He came to the firm from OKW Architects, where he guided that firm’s retail market business.

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CA Ventures hired Carlo Matta to head the firm’s new London-based European division, and Olaf Henschen as managing director for developments in the Netherlands.

KUDOS

Evergreen Real Estate Group won the Urban Land Institute Chicago 2018 Vision Award for St. Charles Senior Living, the developer’s recently completed senior housing community in Aurora, in the Historic Art Deco category. The $24M redevelopment transformed the former St. Charles Hospital, designed by Wybe J. Van der Meer in 1932, into a 60-unit affordable senior housing complex.

CONSTRUCTION

Principle Construction completed a 40K SF tenant improvement project for Business I.T. Source at 850 Asbury Drive in Buffalo Grove. The project brings all of BITS’ operations under one roof. Matthew Cotherman was project manager and Dennis Crawford was the on-site superintendent. Harris Architects provided design services.

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The Opus Group completed the construction of a 75K SF headquarters facility for HELUKABEL within West Dundee’s Oakview Corporate Park. The industrial office and warehouse building serves as the North American headquarters for the German company that manufactures and supplies cables, wires and accessories for industrial, infrastructure and office applications.