CHICAGO-Grady Hamilton, a 13-year commercial real estate veteran, has been selected to lead the local office for Dallas-based Trammel Crow Co., a subsidiary of CB Richard Ellis. Grady was promoted to lead the company’s business unit, and will be responsible for identifying new development and investment opportunities throughout the Midwest.
Hamilton joined the company from Opus North last year, and has worked with industrial property and nearly 475 acres of land in Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Louis. His task will be to work on capitalizing on acquisitions throughout the Midwest, as well as being ready to pounce on development as soon as space constrains enough to push new building need.
He’s already working on a high-profile development project in Chicago, the proposed one-million-square-foot 301 S. Wacker Dr. tower. The company announced the project in November, though there’s still no tenants signed. “We’re still active in preleasing and raising capital,” Hamilton says. “We have an active list of significant size tenants that legitimize the project, and the availability of class A trophy space is tightening downtown. It’s just a matter of time before the trajectory of the market provides us a prospect.”
The Chicago-area industrial market is also seeing a tightening as no new development has occurred for a couple years. “A lot of the requirements, such as high clear ceilings, are not being met by existing stock,” Hamilton says. “The same is true in Minneapolis, where the availability for 32-foot clear space is dwindling. As rents stabilize for these properties, you may see some desire for new space, though it varies submarket by submarket.”
He says the new packages and economic incentives being discussed would help the Midwest recover from its job losses, though consumer spending has to improve to boost industrial traffic through the Midwest. “I think the Midwest is starting to get to the tipping point,” Hamilton says. “We need to see consumer spending rise, and job growth, to get some absorption.”
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