Another Chicago office user is scaling back its downtown footprint in the wake of evolving workforce needs, but the owner of 200 East Randolph Street will take the win.  Service Employees International Union Local 1 has leased 20,000 square feet on the 15th floor of the 83-story Aon Center, for which landlord 601W scored a loan extension last summer, CoStar reported.  JLL broker Jake Ehrenberg represented SEIU Local 1 in lease negotiations, while Telos Group’s Jeff Dowdell and Jamey Dix, along with JLL’s Isabella Spinell, represented 601W, which bought the 2.75 million-square-foot to ..read more

Old Town residents are pushing back against Fern Hill’s proposed 44-story apartment tower on the eastern edge of the neighborhood. Opponents of the 500-unit project, dubbed Old Town Canvas, have formed a coalition, citing concerns about its size and potential impact on traffic, Crain’s reported.  Fern Hill updated plans for the project in response last month. The developer added eight floors — 85 feet — to the proposed tower in exchange for a greater setback meant to free up neighbors’ views, reducing its width by 15 percent to 164 feet. Still, the opposition group, called Old Town Friend ..read more

George Lucas is developing a blockbuster that’s poised to smash records, but not at the box office. The billionaire Star Wars creator and his wife, Mellody Hobson, are combining two of their luxury condos in Streeterville’s Park Tower to form a 16,000-square-foot duplex penthouse, the Chicago Tribune reported.  Lucas and Hobson bought their 8,000-square-foot unit on the 66th floor for $11.2 million in January 2023, which marked the priciest condo sale of the year in Chicago. They paid $18.75 million for their 65th-floor unit in 2015. The couple’s new condo will cost $33.5 million to assem ..read more

CA Ventures CEO Tom Scott isn’t backing down from a $100 million fight with a former partner, Canadian investment giant QuadReal, over a River North office lease that went south. Last week, the Chicago-based developer filed a motion to dismiss QuadReal’s allegations that Scott and CA Ventures committed fraud by signing it up to pay for a 70,000-square-foot office lease at 448 North LaSalle Street. CA Ventures’ response is the firm’s latest attempt to diffuse litigation initiated over the past year by its partners, lenders, investors and institutional backers. It claims that QuadReal, rather th ..read more

A New York investor took advantage of a sweet discount in its acquisition of a Lincoln Park retail center. Regal Ventures paid $11.2 million for the 55,000-square-foot Belden Centre at 2301-2315 North Clark Street, better known as the former home of Tower Records, Crain’s reported. That’s about $203 per square foot.  Regal took a $7.9 million loan from W Financial to facilitate the purchase.  Newport Capital Partners, the seller, bought the property for $17.8 million, $322 per square foot, in 2013. The sale price marks a 37 percent drop from when it last changed hands, highlighting t ..read more

The Chicago Bears pulled back the curtain on a planned $3.2 billion domed stadium along the city’s lakefront, which would anchor a mixed-use development near its longtime home Soldier Field. Bears president Kevin Warren presented the stadium plans to city officials today, Crain’s reported.  Of the $3.2 billion estimated cost, approximately $2.3 billion would be sourced from private investment, underlining the Bears’ commitment to the venture. Taxpayers are expected to contribute $900 million upfront through bonds issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. In addition, the team is ..read more

Phil Rosse is about to capitalize on a new buzz — this time around North Side real estate. The president of the company behind well-known alcoholic beverages Mike’s Hard Lemonade and White Claw Hard Seltzer listed his Lakeview home for $3.25 million last week. After just five days on the market, Rosse, president of the drinks’ parent company Mark Anthony Brands, has accepted an offer for the home at 3716 North Lakewood Avenue, according to public listing information. The sale is now marked as contingent, meaning it’s under contract and the buyer is working toward closing. While its closing pri ..read more

German real estate firm Metropolis Investment Holdings is about to have another big hole to fill in its trophy Chicago office building, the NBC Tower at 455 North Riverside Plaza Drive. The 36-story property’s namesake tenant NBC is set to hand back a little more than half of its office space to landlord Metropolis as part of a long-term lease that will keep the broadcaster in the building through 2040, according to people familiar with the transaction. The deal will take NBC down to a little more than 68,000 square feet in the building, a cut of more than 50 percent. NBC will also retain nami ..read more

A development team has acquired a north suburban office property for a fraction of what it was once worth, with plans to convert it into a mixed-use residential complex.  A venture led by Evergreen Park-based DIR Development last month bought the Old Orchard Towers, at 5202 and 5250 Old Orchard Road, in Skokie for just shy of $8 million, Crain’s reported. That’s under $23 per square foot. The price marks an 88 percent discount from the $64 million that the seller, Zeller, paid for the 355,000-square-foot property in 2007. It’s also a fraction of the $59.6 million loan that Zeller took out ..read more

Efforts to lift the state’s ban on rent control in the Illinois General Assembly have stalled for now, as bills introduced fail to gain traction. The push to fund a $20 million state affordable housing tax credit, however, was successful.  An Illinois Senate bill to lift the rent control ban, introduced in February by state Sen. Natalie Toro of Chicago’s 20th District, is on ice after it was not called in time to meet a legislative deadline.  The bill was not assigned to a committee before April 12, meaning it will not move forward this session, Toro’s spokesperson, Natalie Bak, said ..read more