CHICAGO-Coventry Real Estate Advisors, based in New York City, has hired locally-based Urban Retail Properties to sell or lease up 39 former Service Merchandise properties in 22 states. The properties range in size from 25,000 square feet to 70,000 square feet, with some vacant and some now occupied by different uses.

Ross Glickman, CEO of Urban, says the company will review each center to identify a specific plan, with the goal of improving sales performance and occupancy. The vacant properties, he says, will be featured in an aggressive merchandising plan.

“These properties are all very well located, they are former box sites that were in good locations with high visibility,” Glickman tells GlobeSt.com. However, he agrees that the desire for big box space has diminished in the past two-to-three years. “These don’t even have to be used as retail, they can be storage sites, or medical office. As long as the deal has financial credibility and is good for the area.”

This is the second portfolio that Coventry has hired Urban on in the past nine months. Glickman says his firm is seeing more of this type of disposition work from both owners and lenders. “However, we are also seeing an increased interest in leasing and buying this type of property, there’s a loosening. We think there’s some light at the end of the tunnel in regard to un-sticking deals,” he says.

CHICAGO-The US Green Building Council announced a new award entitled the Mayor Richard M. Daley Legacy Award for Global Leadership in Creating Sustainable Cities. The award will be presented to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley at USGBC’s annual Greenbuild conference, which will be held this Nov. 17-19 in Chicago. “USGBC is incredibly honored to be part of Mayor Daley’s legacy as a world leader in demonstrating how a nurturing and sustainable city can be the highest service to a community,” said Roger Platt, SVP of global policy and law, USGBC. “This award is in recognition of the mayor’s visionary and planet-changing leadership that has created the amazing legacy of a green city. We are looking forward to bringing our Greenbuild conference back to one of the world’s most sustainable cities.”

CHICAGO-Central Loop Office Tower 55 West Monroe has been awarded LEED Gold certification. This 803,046-square-foot, class-A office building is owned and advised by

LaSalle Investment Management, and managed and leased by Jones Lang LaSalle. The 30-year-old building earned LEED certification from the US Green Building Council under the Existing Buildings.

CHICAGO-Goble & Associates Inc. has extended its lease of 20,773 square feet of space at One East Wacker Dr. while also adding an additional 7,202 square feet of adjacent space in a deal that will keep the company in the building until 2021. Monica Moore and John Beason of Jones Lang LaSalle represented building ownership in the transaction while Kevin Duckler of Newmark Knight Frank represented the tenant. The 41-story building features in-building parking, a conference center, fitness center, tenant lounge, and McCormick & Schmick’s and caff