What happened, and who moved.
Private equity billionaire Justin Ishbia’s land assembly strategy in Chicago’s South Loop that could open up a new Major League Baseball stadium development site for the White Sox took a major step forward Friday. Ishbia, the head of Shore Capital Partners and Chicago White Sox owner-in-waiting, looks set to…
Mega mall landlord Mike Kohan is at risk of losing half a Chicago Loop office building he just seized from financial distress. A strange dispute at 33 West Monroe Street escalated into a court battle between ground landlord Baptist Theological Union and Kohan, a Great Neck, New York-based investor whose main…
Kurv Industrial is proposing a sweeping redevelopment of the fully vacant Ford City Mall with a smattering of warehouses and distribution buildings. The company is planning to formally present the plans to the Chicago Plan Commission on Aug. 20, but the plans have drawn the ire of West Lawn residents. Chicago-based…
In broad strokes, Chicago’s office market has seen better days. At the upper end of office buildings, however, premier space is shrinking rapidly as high-profile companies are scrambling for Class A space. Sidley Austin is set to pay upwards of $115 per square foot for space in a planned Fulton Market office tower…
Houston-based industrial real estate investment and management firm SparrowHawk snagged a 20-property, 4.4 million-square-foot portfolio across six markets in the Midwest. The acquisition price was $400 million, and Stockholm-based global investment firm EQT was the seller, according to a statement from the…
JLL is looking to bail on 601W’s Aon Center and potentially move to 100 North Riverside Plaza. The real estate services firm is in preliminary stages of negotiations to exit the Aon Center, and is considering other options around the city, according to a report from CoStar. The scope of the deal is still currently…
Los Angeles-based mega-investor Ares Management is continuing its buying spree in Chicago’s suburban industrial market. In a deal that closed last week, Ares bought ten light industrial properties from Massachusetts-based High Street Logistics for $84 million, or about $117 per square foot, property records show.…
After the $6 billion Lincoln Yards megadevelopment failed to launch, at least one nearby property owner is cutting his losses. Longtime Chicago investor and founder of Belgravia Group, David “Buzz” Ruttenberg, sold a shopping center at 2070 North Clybourn Avenue for $18 million to Ohio-based real estate investment…
In Chicago’s downtown area, 35 office to residential building conversions that are either proposed, undergoing the conversion process or completed, now tally $2.1 billion in new investment. Data first reported by Crain’s shows that there are at least 4,466 new residential units being created out of the data set.…
Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson formally called for a moratorium on new data center development within city limits as lawmakers mull additional regulations on the increasingly-controversial projects. Johnson signed an executive order demanding new regulations on existing and proposed data center developments within…
Illinois Realtors are set to launch a partnership program with municipal leaders aimed at confronting housing shortages. The group is calling the venture the Illinois Housing Supply Accelerator program, and it is set to function by having Illinois Realtors governmental affairs directors work with local governments…
Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, whose fall from grace includes federal fraud convictions and political scandals in Texas, is facing a $45.6 million foreclosure lawsuit on the Calumet Center retail property in suburban Chicago. Miami-based special servicer Rialto Capital moved to file the complaint in Cook…
Chicago-based firm Newport Capital Partners hired brokers to market the Ontario City Centre at 38-58 East Ontario Street for sale, a retail center anchored by a Trader Joe’s location as well as a 226-key AC Hotel. The eight-story building totals 320,879 square feet, and Newport has owned the building for two…
The Lake County Illinois Data Center Opposition Coalition, a group assembled specifically to oppose a Grayslake village area data center northwest of Chicago, announced a lawsuit against T5 Data Centers and Alter Asset Management that’s set to go up in the Cornerstone business park. Alter Asset Management Group…
Bally’s Chicago is pausing construction on nongaming amenities at its $1.7 billion casino complex over the legalization of video gambling terminals in the city. “Bally’s issued a notification to the Chicago Community Builders Collective that it is resetting the pace of construction of elements of Bally’s Chicago…
Fannie Mae is extending its Chicago foreclosure assault against properties connected to Lakewood, New Jersey-based investor Chaim Bialostozky, who’s also facing Walker & Dunlop’s accusations of making fraudulent real estate deals to receive inflated loan amounts. Fannie on Thursday filed a fresh lawsuit against…
One of downtown Chicago’s landmark office buildings is getting closer to becoming a partial data center in the midst of pushback from preservation groups. The Permit Review of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks greenlit plans to transform the bottom half of 300 West Adams Street into a data center, thrusting the…
Pacific Life is pouring resources into turning around a vertical mall on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile that it seized out of financial distress. The Newport Beach, California-based lender-turned-landlord for the Shops at North Bridge property at 520 North Michigan Avenue announced it’s preparing a $40 million…
BrightSpire Capital is in danger of losing its grip on a suburban Chicago retail property, after a DuPage County judge appointed a receiver to take control, in a foreclosure lawsuit over a $31 million securitized commercial loan that fell into default. Judge Robert G. Gibson named Chris Neilson of Dallas-based…
🏆New Building: The largest new building application filed last week was in Uptown, where Catapult Real Estate Solutions filed plans to construct a $23 million mixed-use building at 4006 North Sheridan Road. The seven-story project will replace The Holiday Club Lounge and feature 91 residential units across six…
Pacific Retail Capital Partners, the owner of Lombard’s Yorktown Center, is suing The Fresh Market for upwards of $15 million for bailing on plans to open a new store at the suburban Chicago mall. In the lawsuit filed Monday in DuPage County Circuit Court, Pacific Retail, the Los Angeles-based Yorktown Center…
Village officials in the Chicago suburb of South Barrington are taking steps to create a tax increment financing district to raise funds for the redevelopment of Allstate’s former headquarters. The new TIF district would earmark funds to pay for new infrastructure and other upgrades for the site’s redevelopment, as…
Chicago-based Vequity’s plan to redevelop portions of the former Pheasant Run Resort site in St. Charles is still up in the air after the City Council punted a decision on a preliminary plan for two weeks. Debate over aspects of the plan are key to city approval — including the amount of drive-thrus and uncertainty…
Gary, Indiana is gearing up for fireworks in August as an $80 million blight elimination program is set to begin the demolition of vacant, derelict buildings. After demolishing the buildings, the city is hoping to revitalize its downtown with new developments including a new train station, offices and apartments,…
Chicago’s suburban multifamily market is off to a strong start in the second half of the year as new supply lags and experienced investors trade properties. Just last week, two suburban apartment complexes traded for $78 million, public records show. The deals come after the second quarter finished on a high note…
The owner of the NBC Tower at 455 Cityfront Plaza wants to renovate a dozen floors in the mid-rise portion of the 37-story tower into apartments. Metropolis Investment Holdings, who represents the German investor who owns the property, has partnered with Chicago-based Riverside Investment & Development on the…
From June of last year to May of this year, Illinois issued 157 permits for new housing construction units per 100,000 residents. That means the state came in second-to-last in homebuilding rates among all U.S. states, according to a July 27 report by Visual Capitalist, highlighting exactly how bleak the local…
La Caisse’s gamble on turning around its two-building Chicago riverfront office complex is starting to pay off. The Canadian pension fund’s real estate arm lured a new renter in Chicago-based private equity investment manager Adams Street Partners, which signed a long-term lease for 46,000 square feet at 120 South…
A joint venture of Branch Capital Partners and Oaktree Capital Management bought a 109-unit Chicago apartment complex on the 606 trail for $41 million from Chicago-based LG Development Group. The property, called Trailhead Apartments, sits at 1744 North Western Avenue, according to Crain’s. The deal for the…
Mike Kohan is under scrutiny for his use of funds tied to Chicago office skyscraper purchases. The mall landlord magnate, who has recently turned his attention to the Windy City’s depressed office market as a persistent buyer, allegedly diverted millions in bond proceeds to cover debts on his personal assets,…
Baby boomers are growing old, but the interest in senior living properties is not. In yet another ownership shift within the sector, Inland Group acquired two elder care properties managed by Dial Senior Living in Deer Park and Batavia, Illinois, for $90.3 million and $70.2 million, respectively. Harrison Street…
Atlanta-based T5 Data Centers is pumping the brakes on part of its massive Grayslake assemblage after encountering community pushback. The developer voluntarily suspended its application to fill 15.75 acres of wetlands for remediation at the site, the Daily Herald reported. Grayslake officials advocated for the…
L3 Capital closed on its purchase of the retail space at the base of the Palmolive Building for $64.5 million, finalizing a deal The Real Deal reported the firm was pursuing earlier this summer. The Chicago private equity firm, cofounded by Domenic Lanni and Timothy Phair, acquired the 51,795-square-foot property…
Grabbing the reins hasn’t kept Shai Wolkowicki in the saddle. When the Boca Raton, Florida-based investor ousted former partner Chikoo Patel in early 2025 and took control of their troubled apartments portfolio through his firm Ruby Development Group, he inherited an operational mess. Now, the bill for that…
Sterling Bay and a JP Morgan Asset Management fund scored a three-year, $213 million refinancing loan from Barings for the high-rise building at 360 North Green Street. The building in Fulton Market boasts 500,000 square feet of office space across its 24 stories, a 5,000-square-foot roofdeck on the fourth floor, a…
The redevelopment plan for a nearly 7-acre shopping complex in a North Shore suburb by contract purchaser and developer Pulte Group courted heated public debate ahead of its development application review with the Village of Northbrook. The proposal — demolishing Meadow Plaza shopping center at 1901 Cherry Lane and…
Pacific Retail Capital Partners defaulted on a $107.4 million loan backed by the Yorktown Center mall in Lombard, sending the suburban Chicago mall toward a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. Los Angeles-based Pacific’s floating-rate commercial mortgage-backed securities debt transferred to special servicer KeyBank on…
🏆Alteration: The largest alteration filing last week was in Hyde Park, where The University of Chicago secured permits totaling $10 million for work at 5207 South Harper Avenue. Hyde Park Labs is a life sciences incubator developed in collaboration with The University of Chicago, Trammell Crow and Beacon Capital…
Two local buyers snagged Northside apartment buildings last week for a combined $60 million, public records show. In one sale, the influential Wirtz Family offloaded a long-held property to a pair of local investors for $34 million and in the other, local firm Becovic Chicago bought a property for $26 million from…
A company with ties to multifamily investor Jonathan Holtzman is putting the Fisher Building at 343 South Dearborn Street up for sale just weeks after losing a separate apartment building in Chicago’s Loop. The Fisher Building boasts 184 apartment units across 20 stories, and marketing materials related to the…
Old Mission Capital is inching closer to a deal to move into Fulton Market and expand their downtown presence. The local trading firm is set to sublease 70,000 square feet across two floors at 167 North Green Street from ArcBest, , according to Crain’s, who cited sources familiar with the lease negotiations.…
After months of heated debate about the redevelopment of the historic 20-acre Mars candy factory in Chicago, Ald. Chris Taliaferro hit the reset button on discussions between the community and developer. “Our meetings thus far have not been productive in that they have been controversial in nature,” Taliaferro told…
The legal headaches are mounting for Chicago real estate investor Shai Wolkowicki. Trusts represented by U.S. Bank Trust NA launched three foreclosure suits in Cook County Chancery Court targeting South Side residential properties managed by Wolkowicki’s firm, Ruby Development Group. The filings, submitted between…
The retail space at the bottom of the Palmer House Hilton hotel is set to hit the auction block after LNR Partners took control in a sheriff’s sale in 2023. An online auction that begins on Aug. 3 has been set for the 67,438-square-foot property, which includes all of the retail, office space and the parking garage…
Oak Park could become the first municipality in Illinois to spike zoning rules that only allow single-family houses on residential lots. The goal of changing the zoning rules is to allow for construction of middle-tier housing that has been mostly missing from areas around the state. Dense, multiunit developments…
Yitzy Klor struck out in his third attempt to convert the Loop condo tower at 200 North Dearborn Street into apartments. The condo board for the tower closed a buildingwide vote this week that came in with about 34 percent of owners rejecting the $98 million offer from Klor, according to a board announcement in the…
With the purchase of the Hawthorne Race Course complete and the new owner’s seeming lack of interest in keeping racing alive in the Chicago area, the nearby town of Cicero is bracing for a controversial scenario: a data center. Cicero officials are expected to consider two anti-data center resolutions when they…
Chicago investor Igor Gabal cleared another hurdle in his effort to partially convert a heavily-discounted loop office building into a data center. Greenwich, Connecticut-based alternative investment firm, Strategic Value Partners, inked a deal last week to partner with Gabal on the conversion of 300 West Adams…
Hawthorn Mall in Vernon Hills is undergoing a sweeping $5 million renovation that’s bringing new restaurants, apartments and varying retailers to the area. Owner Dallas-based Centennial Real Estate is taking the traditional mall building, long-due for an upgrade, into a new era. Lighting across the interior of the…
Controversial father-son landlord duo Raphael and John Lowenstein took center stage in Cook County’s June foreclosure filings. After offloading a Kenwood apartment complex earlier this year amid mounting distress in their real estate portfolios, the Lowensteins are now facing nearly $55 million in combined…
Dallas-based Tabani Group is looking to cash in on a prime North Shore property, targeting a price tag of a little more than $40 million for Renaissance Place in downtown Highland Park, according to sources familiar with the offering. The firm, led by Zaffar Tabani, tapped Newmark to market the 174,000-square-foot…
Related Midwest finished up the crown installation on the North Tower at 400 Lake Shore Drive, the tallest building in Chicago that’s currently under construction. Construction on the building is set to be completed in spring 2027, according to a press release. The tower has reached its target height, 72 stories…
More and more companies that vacuumed up Chicago area warehouse space during the pandemic are now shedding capacity. Available warehouse space vacancies inched up to 5 percent from 4.9 percent over the course of the quarter, according to Crain’s, who cited real estate data firm Colliers. The vacancy rate has been…
Chicago’s real estate summer for residential shoppers is looking to get hotter, and maybe even abbreviated. Scarce availability in competitive markets continued to push prices upwards into the summer as Illinois median home prices reached $345,000 in June, a 6.2 percent annual increase, with fewer homes on the…
UrbanStreet Group is planning a residential conversion of an atrium office building that used to house Motorola, as part of Schaumburg’s the District at Veridian development. During an informal presentation with village officials, UrbanStreet managing partner Bob Burk said that converting the six-story,…
🏆Alteration: The largest alteration permit issued last week was in Lakeview for $27 million of infrastructure renovation work at 655 West Irving Park Road. The project at the co-op building includes replacing water risers, waste and vent piping, and HVAC piping, as well as installing new ceilings on three floors.…
A dual-branded hotel near O’Hare International Airport is caught up in a foreclosure tied to the U.S. EB-5 visa program which grants visas to foreign developers who invest a certain amount of capital into U.S. real estate. A foreclosure filed last week alleges that the developer of the 400-key Hyatt La Quinta hotel…
Legal troubles for Chicago real estate investor Jiazhao “Frank” Chen are multiplying as the South Side landlord was named in another foreclosure lawsuit filed late last week involving three Bridgeport properties. The lawsuit is over a defaulted loan payment of nearly $820,000 against Best Credit Investment LLC, an…