This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet
Southeast Wisconsin continues its rise as a key industrial submarket for the Chicago region. Demolition will begin this month on the former site of the Dairyland Greyhound Dog Track at 5522 104th Ave. in Kenosha, according to Cushman & Wakefield, which represents the owner in lease and sale negotiations.
The site, vacant since 2009, will become a 214-acre industrial business park, the Kenosha Commerce Center, and by early 2020 be available for development and construction of build-to-suit leases and purchases.
KCC, which may eventually total up to 1.8M SF, is just north of the state border and convenient to three airports — Kenosha Regional Airport is just across the street, General Mitchell International Airport is a 30-minute commute and O'Hare International Airport is 45 minutes away.
The site will add even more industrial inventory to the submarket, which recently landed Foxconn’s new North American manufacturing campus along with Amazon and SC Johnson.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Brett Kroner, Keith Puritz and Eric Fischer represent the owner of KCC.
“Future occupants will have access to more than 150 intermodal facilities in the surrounding area and will also be within easy reach of 50% of the U.S. population within a day’s truck delivery, and 75% of the populace within a two day’s truck delivery,” Kroner said.
Dakota Intertek Corp. is the demolition subcontractor for the kennel and grandstand areas, and expects to complete its work by April.
EXECS
Chicago-based Bespoke Commercial Real Estate promoted Emily Smith to senior vice president.
Specializing in the Downtown Chicago market, Smith has more than 12 years of experience representing privately held companies and consulting on office and industrial transactions. She has been with Bespoke since it launched in 2013.
Smith served on the board of the National Association of Women Business Owners and was awarded NAWBO Member of the Year. She was included in the Daily Herald Business Ledger’s “Most Influential Women in Business” in 2013.
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Skender promoted a number of its employees to senior positions: Dave Ruzich, Nestor Acance and Tom Boehm from superintendent to senior superintendent; and Jeff Reist and Bob Kedzorski from project manager to senior project manager.
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Skender Foundation promoted Belinda Moore to executive director. She now develops and implements the foundation's strategic plan. She has been integral to the organization's growth since it started in 2012, most recently serving as associate executive director. Previously, she held multiple accounting and administrative roles for Skender, one of the nation’s largest building contractors.
LEASES
Tucker Development secured a trio of leases at 900 West, the developer’s mixed-use development comprising 10 repurposed historic buildings in the Fulton Market District of Chicago’s West Loop. The first two leases bring in new food options: Kinton Ramen, a Toronto-based ramen bar, and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, an artisan ice cream maker. Independence, an upscale menswear boutique, will also relocate to 900 West from Oak Street in Chicago’s Gold Coast. All three plan to open in 2019.
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Brown Commercial Group’s Mike Antonelli and Matt Hanson represented Custom Design Stages in its 18K SF lease at 980 Remington Road in Schaumburg. The business will use the space for equipment storage. The company expanded from a previous location in Schaumburg and required a quick turnaround for finding space and moving in.
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McCaffery Brokerage and Hines added Velvet Taco to their Lincoln Common development, a mixed-use project designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Antunovich Associates, and located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The Texas-based fast-casual restaurant will occupy 2,500 SF, joining Kohler Waters Spa and Equinox Fitness at Lincoln Common. The developers plan to open by late 2019.
SALES
Essex Realty Group completed the sale of 146 condos at Waterfall Glen, a complex with a total of 304 units at 16W571 Mockingbird Lane in suburban Willowbrook. The units, which sold for $15.3M, are a mix of 42 one-bedroom, 77 two-bedroom and 27 three-bedroom units. Waterfall Glen has a total of 19 buildings, each with 16 units, and sits on 24 acres. Matt Welke, Matt Feo, Brian Kochendorfer, Brian Karmowski and Troy Beebe were the brokers on the transaction.
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Marcus & Millichap’s Stephen Lieberman and Peter Doughty closed five multifamily/office mixed-use properties in suburban Evanston, each with between three and seven units. The portfolio sold for $7M. The properties are at 1611 Simpson St., 537 Custer Ave., 1128 Florence Ave., 1715 Church St. and 1703-11 Darrow Ave., and 2144 Ashland Ave.
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Newmark Knight Frank completed the sale of a 7.5-acre site within Huntley Commercial Center, formerly the site of the Huntley Factory Outlet Center. General RV Center acquired the parcel to expand its adjacent dealership. NKF’s Adam Marshall, James Schutter, Mark Deady and Luke Sementa were hired in April to lead the brokerage team.
Owners of the property include affiliates of California-based Craig Realty Group, Elgin-based The Capital Cos. and Chicago-based The Prime Group. The Huntley Factory Outlet Center was demolished in April and now has about 60 acres remaining for purchase, or build-to-suit for sale or lease.
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The Boulder Group, a Wilmette-based net leased investment brokerage firm, completed the sale of a single-tenant net-leased Jewel-Osco property at 1660 Larking Ave. in Elgin for $14.8M. The 69K SF building was remodeled in 2009, and has approximately 19 years remaining on the lease. Boulder’s Randy Blankstein and Jimmy Goodman represented both the buyer and seller. The seller is a private real estate investment company based in the Southwest. The buyer is a Los Angeles-based real estate firm in a 1031 exchange.
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CBRE’s Sam Badger, Whit Heitman, Brad Weiner and Jared Paff represented Doheny’s, a family-owned swimming pool supply company with eight distribution centers nationwide, in a sale-leaseback transaction for 10411 80th Ave. in southeast Wisconsin’s Pleasant Prairie. Doheny’s sold the 195K SF property to Boston-based STAG Industrial Holdings LLC for approximately $16M and signed a long-term lease with the new owner. STAG may expand the property by 95K SF this summer, and along with CBRE, market the additional space for lease.
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Value Industrial Partners acquired 107-131 North Lively Blvd. in Elk Grove Village, part of the O’Hare submarket. The 39K SF masonry building has spaces for five tenants and is occupied by four. It features 14-foot ceilings, truck docks and drive-in doors for each unit. GC Realty’s Brad Bullington represented the seller, a private investor, and brought the opportunity to Value Industrial Partners. Brian Liston, John Horrigan and Brian Gedvilas worked on behalf of Value Industrial Partners. The company and its affiliates now own 17 buildings within the submarket.
CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Summit Design + Build LLC, a Chicago-based general contractor, along with City Pads, Catapult Real Estate Solutions and Cagan Management Group started construction of 6145 North Broadway in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. The project kicked off with the demolition of an existing single-story building. The new six-story, 79K SF apartment building will feature 105 apartment units ranging from studios to two-bedrooms, and open in spring 2020. The building will also have almost 4K SF of first-floor retail. Built Form serves as the project architect.
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The new owners of River City Apartments, a former condo development, revealed conceptual renderings of planned renovations. Designed by Blue Star Properties, the renderings show a full redesign and renovation of the lobby, an updated community space named “River Road” and a new front entrance. Architect Bertrand Goldberg’s original vision is at the core of the renovations.
In December, a joint venture of The Wolcott Group, Marc Realty and Ruttenberg Gordon Investments purchased River City from the River City Condo Association, making it the largest condo deconversion in Chicago history. Leasing begins in February and the new owners anticipate first move-ins in March.
THIS AND THAT
RentCafé.com has looked at the numbers and found the Chicago region's most coveted suburb. Using data from Yardi Matrix and the U.S. Census Bureau, it tabulated renter population changes between 2011 and 2016, and also analyzed the change in rent prices to see what impact this popularity had.
It turns out Gurnee is Chicagoland's most sought-after suburb, with a 46% increase in the renter population. This might come at a cost, as rents rose 21% between 2014 and 2018. Glendale Heights came in second with a 45% boost in renters during the five-year period, but an uptick of only 1% in prices.
