A local real estate investor has purchased a deeply discounted West Loop office building with plans for a residential conversion. Honore Properties paid $4.8 million in cash for the 72,000-square-foot building at 118 South Clinton Street this week, Crain’s reported. That’s a little under $67 per square foot and a massive discount from the $14 million that the seller, a venture of Maryland-based ASB Real Estate Investments, paid for it in 2019. Honore, led by founder Michael Shenouda, plans to convert the seven-story building into 70 apartments. The office-to-resi conversion idea is popular amo ..read more

Join The Real Deal and BSH for “How Design Philosophy Influences Development Strategies” featuring a conversation between Chicago design and development leaders on how their philosophies translate into and influence strategy on large scale developments in Chicago.  The evening will gather even more top developers and designers in the brand new BSH Experience and Design center—located in the River North district—for an evening of networking, drinks, food, conversation, and plenty of inspiration from our featured speakers. You’ll hear our featured speakers discuss: What design philosophies ..read more

A Chicago office rarity just hit the market, and it’s expected to test demand for healthy assets in the city. Calgary-based MDC Realty Advisors and an affiliate of Vancouver-based Nicola Wealth Management listed the 12-story building at 6250 North River Road, near O’Hare International Airport, CoStar reported. Cushman & Wakefield brokers Dan Deuter, Tom Sitz and Cody Hundertmark are marketing the property. While plenty of office buildings have been listed and traded in Chicago recently, they are mostly buildings in financial distress or with high vacancy. Several have failed to fetch price ..read more

Chicago multifamily developers are having their moment atop the nation’s market. They have their counterparts in the Sun Belt to thank. After developers rushed into states like Arizona, Texas and Tennessee over the past several years to build frilly new apartments for their growing populations, they overheated. Supply started outpacing demand, and rents began falling. Lease-ups have trailed behind the schedules that builders penciled into their business plans. The slowdown in the South has delivered a comeback to the Midwest, which has notched top rates in the U.S. for year-over-year rent grow ..read more

Michael Collier’s hotel-turned-homeless shelter near Chicago’s Magnificent Mile is keeping his firm’s creditors at bay with a bankruptcy. Collier’s company Hotel Capital filed for bankruptcy on the former Selina Hotel, at 100 East Chestnut Street, blocking a lender’s foreclosure action, Crain’s reported. A subsidiary of Chicago-based LaSalle Investment Management filed a $25 million foreclosure lawsuit against Hotel Capital in September, claiming the firm defaulted on its mortgage for the 16-story building. That lawsuit will be put on hold until the bankruptcy case is resolved. Hotel Capital o ..read more

Winnetka homeowners have made good on their threats against public officials in the pricey village. A group of more than a dozen parties filed a lawsuit against the village government Thursday over a new ordinance regulating construction along its coveted lakefront. The complaint estimated that the loss in property values that could come from the new regulations could equate to damages “in the hundreds of millions of dollars.” Luxury homeowners, including Bill Jackson and Mandy Day, as well as real estate agents came out hard against the ordinance at Village Hall meetings earlier this year. Th ..read more

Jeff Aeder’s firm focuses on deploying real estate debt, but he also senses the time of the rental home has arrived. Aeder heads Chicago-based JDI Realty, which paid $34 million for 164 townhomes spread across Chicagoland to a venture of Ken Buckman, a suburban businessman who built up the portfolio over the past 14 years, according to the buyer. The price works out to $207,000 per unit. The properties are in more than a dozen towns and cities in Lake, Kane, McHenry, Will and Grundy counties. Units available for rent now range from $2,450 a month for a three-bedroom, 1,665-square-foot home in ..read more

After banks shied away from Mark Goodman’s proposal to build lab space in Fulton Market, the developer pivoted to a plan for apartments and scored a $17 million refinancing. It replaces a previous debt provided by prolific Chicago real estate investor Don Wilson. A joint venture of Goodman, high-tech window company founder Rodrigo D’Escoto and former Lendlease executive Ted Weldon secured the new loan for 400 North Elizabeth Street. Weldon now heads up Weldon Development Group with other former Lendlease colleagues. He previously helped develop the South Loop luxury apartment complex The Reed ..read more

The Chicago Bears’ fantastic renderings of a domed lakefront stadium south of Soldier Field haven’t warmed Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to the team’s proposed public financing for a majority of the $3.2 billion plan. The NFL team wants $900 million in bond funding issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, as well as $1.5 billion for infrastructure costs, including $325 million up front for construction. But a meeting this week between Bears executives and representatives from the governor’s office didn’t move the needle, Crain’s reported. “As the governor has said, the current proposa ..read more

A fitness club brand owned mostly by Related Companies head Stephen Ross might hop in bed with another developer to raise its flag in Fulton Market. Equinox is in talks to lease about 40,000 square feet at 919 West Fulton Street, a 409,000-square-foot office development led by investor Shanna Khan and Fulton Street Companies, Crain’s reported.  The deal hasn’t been completed and could fall apart entirely. But if finalized, Equinox would bring a luxury gym to Fulton Market, which has rapidly evolved from a bygone meatpacking district to one of Chicago’s hottest neighborhoods. Office develo ..read more