CHICAGO—Yesterday, GlobeSt.com reported that Kehoe Designs had just decided to expand and consolidate its operations from several buildings on the Near West Side to a 234,500-square-foot facility at 2555 S. Leavitt St. near the Pilsen neighborhood.
“That area has definitely become more of a destination,” Jeff Girling of Paine/Wetzel TCN Worldwide tells GlobeSt.com. “There's a lot of gentrification and redevelopment that's going on,” and this will help attract new users like Kehoe to the many older industrial structures around the neighborhood.
GlobeSt.com also reported yesterday that several industrial developers have launched a major speculative project just a few blocks from Kehoe's next home and hope to attract food distributors getting pushed out of the Fulton Market neighborhood as high-tech firms like Google pour in.
“There is a lot of similarity in Pilsen today to what we saw in the Fulton Market area years ago before it exploded,” adds Terry Lynch, also of Paine/Wetzel. Namely, many distributors have begun poking around, looking for deals in a submarket that provides usable product and quick access to downtown customers.
“Geographically, it's a great location if you're moving from Fulton Market,” Girling adds. Kehoe currently occupies four buildings around the city with a total of about 125,000-square-feet, with its main location at 2108 W. Walnut St., in the industrial corridor that stretches west of Fulton Market. “They were jam-packed in those spaces.”
Kehoe, which provides floral services, rental furniture, art and landscaping for weddings, corporate events, exhibits and galas, has a large number of downtown clients, and “the proximity to downtown is definitely what attracted it to Pilsen,” says Girling.
He and Lynch, along with Cushman & Wakefield's Brad Weiner, represented Kehoe in the lease negotiations. Cushman & Wakefield's Larry Goldwasser and Colin Green represented the landlord, Mack Packaging.
“We were out on the market for awhile looking,” Girling adds, due to a limited supply of space of the size needed by Kehoe, and a great deal of demand. But 2555 S. Leavitt “hit all the right boxes for both Kehoe and the owner.”
The building had been vacant for about 18 months, and “it was built in the 1960s, so it needs some sprucing up,” Girling says. The brokers signed a confidentially agreement, so he can't divulge details about the terms, but did say that Kehoe signed a long-term lease, and Mack agreed to kick in some money for a renovation. But Kehoe will take on the lion's share of the responsibility as it transforms the building into a new production facility, showroom space and office headquarters.
“They're going to make it into a tremendous space.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
