Chicago Commercial Real Estate – In the News

Tom’s Recommended Reading for the Week

The NHL playoff season has begun. Lets go Blackhawks!! Check out our top Chicago Commercial Real Estate articles as you head into the weekend.

  1. Duchossois family plans Oak Brook office development  – A venture of the Duchossois family bought four no-frills office buildings in Oak Brook that it may tear down for an office development of at least 200,000 square feet. The real estate arm of Elmhurst-based Duchossois Group Inc., known for a variety of investments including horse racetracks such as Churchill Downs and garage door opener company Chamberlain Group Inc., acquired the adjacent buildings March 31, a spokeswoman confirmed… Crain’s Chicago
  2. Investor Mizrachi looks to build one West Loop tower, sell another – Florida investor Joseph Mizrachi wants to build a hotel and office tower in the West Loop while selling an office building several blocks away that he hopes will attract offers of $335 million or more. Mr. Mizrachi plans a nearly 1.1 million-square-foot hotel and office tower on land at Jefferson and Madison streets, according to people familiar with his plans. He and New York investor David Werner took over the parcel through their $350 million acquisition in late 2012 of 540 W. Madison St., the office building next door… Crain’s Chicago
  3. Using Collaborative Office Strategies – Corporate users across the metro area have begun transforming their offices into more collaborative, wide-open spaces, and many more have become intrigued by the trend. But experts say before a proper transformation takes place, designers need to have a lot of interaction with workers.“I would sit on the floor with groups of employees,” Debbie Fangman, facility manager for Gogo, told a panel discussion group on Thursday, and stay there asking questions until she understood “how they deal with the obstacles in our current system… Globe St.
  4. Tech’s Impact on Office Leasing  – Greater digitalization, tighter cubicle spaces, more freedom for collaboration and the disappearance of the Baby Boom generation. All of these factors are changing the way corporate America works…and will ultimately impact how commercial office brokers and developers ply their trades. So says Beth Campbell, principal and managing director in the local office of architecture and design giant Gensler. “People are signing 10, 15 even 20-year leases,” she says. “But how will the office technology look then? There is a challenge in this system… Globe St.
  5. Thinking About Office Development: Consider These Submarkets – If you’re thinking about building office space in this cycle, you’d better dust off those blueprints and get back into the game soon, before it’s too late. The office cycle is about halfway through the recovery phase: Demand continues to rise and is expected to peak by 2015-16. Supply remains mostly concentrated in a handful of markets, rent growth finally cracked the 3% level last year, and NOI growth should return in 2014. All this means that projects kicking up dirt this year will deliver — and more importantly, stabilize — just in time, before fundamentals unwind… CoStar