Monthly Archives: March 2014

Bradford Allen Adds Four Suburban Properties to Leasing Portfolio

Published March 31, 2014

CHICAGO – Bradford Allen is pleased to announce the firm has been hired as the exclusive leasing agent for four new suburban properties, adding to their growing Chicagoland agency practice. Earlier this month, a Minnesota-based institutional investor took control of 115, 121 and 125 South Wilke Road in Arlington Heights and 1920 South Highland Avenue in Lombard through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. SVN Crossroads Management will be handling asset and property management for the assignments.

The 123,500 square foot Wilke office plaza, located one block from the intersection of South Wilke Road and Euclid Avenue, is approximately 67 percent leased. In close proximity to the Cook County Circuit Court and Northwest Community Hospital, the buildings contain a mix of medical office and professional services tenants. Bradford Allen Director John Millner, along with Director Allison Reynolds, will be leasing the properties. In collaboration with SVN Crossroads Management, a rebranding, repositioning and capital improvement program is being planned.

“The buildings have great intrinsic value,” said Bradford Allen, Principal and Co-Founder, Jeffrey Bernstein, who leads the firm’s agency practice. “They’re simply in need of some selected, capital improvements, and an aggressive leasing and marketing program.”

Similarly, Bradford Allen and SVN Crossroads Management will partner to reposition and rebrand 1920 South Highland Avenue, a three story, 54,400 square foot office building located near the intersection of Highland Avenue and 22nd Street. The well-located property, with close proximity to I-355 and I-88, is approximately 60 percent occupied. Bradford Allen Director Ryan Moen will handle leasing efforts for the assignment along with Reynolds.

“We are excited to team with Bradford Allen on these projects,” said SVN Crossroads Management Principal, Lee Kotler. “Their long track-record of success and deep roots in the suburban market arena and their fresh marketing approach make them well positioned to help turn these assets around.”

About Bradford Allen
Bradford Allen Realty Services, a Chicago-based, national commercial real estate company provides a full array of brokerage services and expertise to entrepreneurial and corporate business entities as well as not-for-profit organizations. The firm provides real estate strategy, advice, marketing, and transaction execution for occupiers, investors and owners of real estate. For more information please visit our website at www.bradfordallen.com.

About SVN Crossroads Management
SVN Crossroads Management is an award-winning full service real estate management firm, providing property management, asset management, construction management and consulting services on a variety of commercial real estate assets throughout the Chicagoland area and in selected markets nationwide. Currently, the portfolio of assets under management is over 2 million square feet. http://www.svncrossroads.com/

Chicago Commercial Real Estate – In the News

Published March 28, 2014

Tom’s Recommended Reading for the Week

This week I was able to make a trip out to sunny California. Unfortunately, I was not able to bring back the nice weather. Hopefully this week’s recommended articles can warm you up a bit. Enjoy!

Tale of Two Cities: City vs. Suburbs – Across the US, corporate users continue to migrate into downtown office properties as they hunt for those younger employees who reject suburban lifestyles. But yesterday, at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services’ CRE Forum in Chicago, several executives grappled with this trend at a morning panel, and the general feeling was that the present imbalance between city and suburbs would not last… Globe St.
The Optimal Office – Though the “open plan” modern office, with its sea of desks, might look like the offspring of a newsroom or a trading floor, it can also trace its heritage to 1960s Germany. There, two brothers who worked in their father’s office-furniture business kicked off the Bürolandschaft, or “office landscape,” movement, which sought to boost communication and efficiency and de-emphasize status. As the idea took hold in North America in the decades that followed, employers switched from traditional offices with one or two people per room to large, wall-less spaces. By the turn of the century, roughly two-thirds of U.S. workers spent their days in open-plan offices… The Atlantic
The Office Recovery Still Has Legs – This part of the cycle looks quite favorable for the office property sector. All of the key areas of the market are improving; absorption is up, supply remains under control in aggregate, rent growth is accelerating, and investors continue to allocate capital to the sector.That being said, there is still plenty of room to run. The recovery appears to be only halfway through, after all… CoStar Group
Empty space, full wallet for Loop office owners – Empty office space may no longer leave Loop landlords with an empty feeling.In a sign of improving times for the downtown Chicago office market, real estate company Lincoln Property Co. and investment manager PIMCO are preparing to put the 29-story office tower at 230 W. Monroe St. on the for-sale market, where bids could approach $200 per square foot, or nearly $125 million, despite nearly a third of the space being unoccupied, sources said… Crain’s Chicago
River North tech leases soften the blow of Google’s goodbye – A River North landlord that will lose Google Inc. next year didn’t search far for two office tenants that could potentially fill some of the tech titan’s space. Chicago-based Sittercity Inc. and Modest Inc., a local startup led by the top techie for President Obama’s re-election campaign, collectively leased about 24,000 square feet at 20 W. Kinzie St., according to the office tower’s owner, Skokie-based Alter Group Ltd… Crain’s Chicago

Chicago Commercial Real Estate – In the News

Published March 21, 2014

Tom’s Recommended Reading for the Week

An exciting couple days ahead of us with the NCAA tournament starting yesterday. Check out these articles before heading into the action packed weekend!

Clashing Over Office Clutter – All nine employees of TheSquareFoot.com in New York City have neat, clean desks—except one.Co-founder Jonathan Wasserstrum’s desk and the floor around it are strewed with paper, files, tech gear and old boxes. “I like being near my stuff rather than fishing for it in a cabinet somewhere,” he says. Being near Mr. Wasserstrum’s stuff is harder for Justin Lee, the company’s other co-founder. At times, “some of his crud will spill over onto my desk,” Mr. Lee says. Other co-workers at the online commercial real-estate leasing and brokerage company sometimes print new copies of documents to avoid handling food-smeared paperwork from Mr. Wasserstrum’s desk… Wall Street Journal
Downtown office sales hit highest level since 2007 – Investors spent more on downtown Chicago office buildings last year than they have in any year since the crash, drawn by an improving leasing market and the buzz generated by big corporate moves from the suburbs to downtown.Downtown office building sales totaled $3.25 billion last year, up 23 percent from 2012 and the highest total since 2007, according to Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle Inc… Crain’s Chicago
Rents for Trophy Office Space Pass Records, Spur New Construction – The national office market has rebounded, with no segment showing the comeback more clearly than trophy properties. It’s no surprise that class-A office space attracts the most demand, but what’s notable is how fast the landlords of those buildings have gotten back in the driver’s seat.A lack of development since the start of the recession, along with exploding demand in both traditional primary markets and those led by energy and technology booms, have pushed demand for class-A space through the roof… NREI
Oprah cuts her last commercial ties to Chicago – Oprah Winfrey, who put an obscure stretch of the Near West Side on the map when she moved her television show there in 1990, is set to sell Harpo Studios for around $32 million to a Chicago developer making its own dramatic imprint on the neighborhood.After a bidding war that enticed investors from as far away as China, Ms. Winfrey’s Harpo Inc. has agreed to sell the four-building campus to Sterling Bay Cos.For Ms. Winfrey, selling off the last of her commercial real estate represents a final step out of Chicago, which she left almost three years ago to form Oprah Winfrey Network in Los Angeles… Crain’s Chicago
Sterling Bay Companies completes Fulton West portfolio acquisition – Sterling Bay Companies has completed the acquisition of Fulton West, a portfolio of existing and partially completed office, retail and parking facilities, from an affiliate of Marc Realty. Sterling Bay purchased the property, with existing superstructure that can accommodate additional future development, for approximately $22 million. In its current stage of development, Fulton West consists of three loft-style office buildings totaling approximately 165,000 square feet and parking facilities — structures and surface lots — for more than 314 automobiles… RE Journals

Chicago Commercial Real Estate – In the News

Published March 14, 2014

Tom’s Recommended Reading for the Week

Happy St Patrick’s Day weekend! Does this mean that spring is finally here? Lets hope so. Check out these 5 articles before heading into the festive holiday weekend.

Google, Motorola, Lefkofsky back FEMtech incubator at 1871 – 1871 is about to become less of a boys’ club.The high-profile launchpad for tech companies at the Merchandise Mart will soon be home to 1871FEMtech, an incubator for women-owned tech startups.It’s part of a broader $1 million effort by Google Inc., called #40Forward, to help launch 40 incubators worldwide aimed at boosting women’s participation in technology by 25 percent this year. FEMtech also is being underwritten by the Motorola Mobility Foundation and the Lefkofsky Family Foundation, set up by Groupon Inc. co-founder Eric Lefkofsky and his wife, Liz… Crain’s Chicago
Where Google Refugees Are Going – Like animal print, the West Loop is so last season. We kid, but another bleeding-edge neighborhood is emerging for those priced out of Google’s new ‘hood..Dayton Street Partners just picked up a 37k SF loft building, 2101 W Carroll St, in the Kinzie Corridor, and founder Howard Wedren (above) tells us the area’s ripe for growth thanks to Fulton Market/West Loop mania. “Many tenants have been displaced and are looking for lower-cost options,” he says. (And if history’s taught us anything, they’ll go West, my son.)… Bisnow
Chicago Spire dream lives on under new deal – The snakebit Chicago Spire — once forecast to be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and now a watery hole in the ground — took a modest step toward resurrection today.Irish developer Garrett Kelleher reached an agreement with his largest creditor over a financing plan that would allow him to keep control of the site and potentially begin searching for construction financing for the proposed 150-story, 1,194-unit project.Lawyers for Mr. Kelleher and the creditor, a venture led by New York-based Related Cos., announced the deal in principle this afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago… Crain’s Chicago
Don Wilson venture takes control of Fulton Market building housing Publican – The Publican has a new landlord: trader Don Wilson, who repossessed the restaurant’s West Loop building more than two years after filing to foreclose on it.A venture of Mr. Wilson’s Chicago-based firm DRW Holdings LLC took over the building at 845 W. Fulton St. in January through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, or a kind of out-of-court settlement, with Robert Kowalski, a local developer and investor who owned the property through a trust, according to Cook County records… Crain’s Chicago
China Cinda Buys into 65-story Chicago Office Tower – Chinese investors charged into the U.S. commercial real-estate market last year with high-profile deals in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now they’re buying in the middle of the country. Cindat Capital Management, partnering with Chicago-based Zeller Realty Group, on Tuesday paid just over $300 million to purchase a 65-story office tower in Chicago, at 311 South Wacker Dr., according to Zeller Executive Vice President Ari Glass… Wall Street Journal

Chicago Commercial Real Estate – In the News

Published March 7, 2014

Tom’s Recommended Reading for the Week

Eventful week with two technology based tenants announcing moves within the CBD! Check out those articles and others below.

Benchmarking Is Only a Starting Point –In a complex and risk-averse business environment, benchmarking has become an essential decision support tool used by brokers and clients to determine how much space a company needs. Historically, firms have looked within their own industry, but lately, regardless of the industry, companies are asking, “What’s Google doing?” as shorthand for wanting to know what the technology industry is up to. Looking outside one’s industry for best practices can be a source of innovation, especially if a firm is looking to move in a new direction. But companies first need to try these characteristics on for size to see if they fit… NREI
Chicago Named “Top Metro” in North America for Corporate Relocation and Expansions – Chicago was ranked the “Top Metro” in the U.S. for corporate investment in a report released today by Site Selection magazine, considered the “industry scoreboard for corporate investment and relocation professionals.” The publication recognized that the Chicago region was home to more new or expanded corporate facilities than any other metropolitan area in the nation in 2013, with 373 new and expanding companies, generating approximately 10,000 new jobs and $2.8 billion in investment… World Business Chicago
Fast-growing Twitter moving Chicago office to 111 N Canal – Twitter Inc. is spreading its wings in Chicago, planning to move to new digs in the West Loop to accommodate its fast-growing staff.The company is leasing space at 111 N. Canal St., which is home to several other tech companies.The San Francisco-based social media company has been expanding rapidly in Chicago since early last year, before it went public. It hired Brad Keown from Facebook to oversee its central region sales teams from Detroit to Dallas. The company has more than doubled Chicago staff to about 30 since June and continues to hire… Crain’s Chicago
Alter Group to sell portfolio, shrink workforce in strategy shift- Nearly two decades after taking over the family real estate business from his dad, Michael Alter oversees a nearly 3 million-square-foot commercial real estate portfolio that includes two River North office towers and stretches from Florida to Arizona. Now, with no heir apparent of his own, he’s preparing to sell it all… Crain’s Chicago
Fast-growing Uber hiring 150 people, moving Chicago office – Uber is hitching a ride to Chicago’s meatpacking district, where it plans to hire another 150 employees in its Midwest headquarters by late 2015.San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc., which brought its taxi-hailing and ride-sharing smartphone appto Chicago in 2011, signed a three-year lease for the 12,000-square-foot building at 370 N. Carpenter St., where it plans to move by June, said Midwest General Manager Andrew Macdonald… Crain’s Chicago

Bradford Allen Arranges Five Medical Office Leases in Bolingbrook

Published March 3, 2014

CHICAGO – Bradford Allen Realty Services announced today that Adventist Health Partners has leased 10,000 square feet of medical office space at the Bolingbrook Medical Center at 396 Remington in Bolingbrook.

Bradford Allen’s Medical Practice Group Senior Managing Director Joel Berger and Director John Millner represented the building ownership, Partners Health Trust, in lease negotiations.

Since January, the physician group has signed five leases at the Class A medical office building. Built in 2008, the 73,544-square-foot building sits on the Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital campus and provides doctors and patients immediate access to hospital’s full range of health care services.

Adventist Health Partners five leases are made up of:

Midwest Bone and Joint – 3,530 square foot renewal and expansion
Two (2) physician timeshares – 3,000 square foot new lease
Physical Therapists Solutions – 2,141 square foot new lease and expansion
Advanced Renal Care – 1,300 square foot new lease

“As a result of the changing landscape in healthcare, many of the physician practice groups that were once independent are now employed by Adventist Health Partners.” said Millner. “As Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital becomes more active, we are seeing their physician group bringing more specialists to the on-campus facility, driving more traffic through the hospital.”

Millner also noted that the timeshare suites have been extremely important for Adventist, allowing doctors to utilize the hospital without the commitment of a full-time office.