Tom’s Recommended Reading for the Week

Check out the top Chicago commercial real estate news before heading into the weekend!

1. Chicago’s Coolest Office – We asked you to show us your office over social media, and hundreds of you did, along with sending some pretty enthusiastic notes about your favorite features. What’s trending in 2014? On-site art commissions are popular, for starters. So are coffee bars stocked with specialty roasts. Other of-the-moment features: sit-stand desks, themed nooks for brainstorming, industrial lighting and the eye-popping color duo of chartreuse and electric blue… Crain’s Chicago
   
2. Foreign Investment in U.S. Markets to Top 2013 Levels – Foreign institutional investors are spending heavily on U.S. assets this year, revealed JLL’s global capital markets experts at the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) fall meeting, currently underway at New York’s Javits Center. In fact, the inflow of foreign capital is so strong that JLL is raising its predictions on foreign investment into the United States for 2014, and is now forecasting nearly $50 billion, up from $38.7 billion in 2013. This latest prediction follows JLL’s having already raised its earlier prediction of total global direct investment transaction volumes from $650 billion to $700 billion by the close of this year… NREI
   
3. New Partners try to kick-start office project near Old St. Pat’s – Tishman Speyer Properties L.P.’s former Chicago leader and real estate investor CA Ventures LLC want to kick-start a proposed West Loop office tower. Chicago-based CA Ventures and Casey Wold, who left New York-based Tishman Speyer in February after working there nearly a decade, confirmed they are part of a recently formed venture to develop a long-planned office tower at 625 W. Adams St., near Old St. Patrick’s Church and the Kennedy Expressway… Crain’s Chicago
   
4. Law Firms Cut Back on Existing Space as They Lag Professional Services in Recovery – U.S. law firms are just not following the recovery trend experienced by the rest of the professional services industry, and are giving up occupancy in many major markets. A new report by real estate services firm Savills Studley points out that while the employment rate for the professional and business services sector is now 7.5 percent above its prior peak at the end of 2007, the number of law office employees has remained unchanged since 2009… NREI
5. Suburban Office Holds Its Own – As reported in GlobeSt.com last week, the office market in the CBD has been putting up some good numbers, showing solid improvement in its vacancy rate, level of absorption and the ability to attract investors. But the suburban region, long regarded as anemic and still losing some companies to downtown buildings, at least held its own in the third quarter, and has shown some signs of life… Globe St.