CHICAGO—The Alter Group has just changed its name to Alter. The name change is accompanied by a major rebrand of the 61-year-old national corporate real estate development firm, including a new logo and a multimedia website which launched this January.
"The new name is both a recognition that we are a leaner, faster company and also that we have re-focused our strategy on our core products – class A offices, master-planned mixed-use developments, and medical facilities under the auspices of our healthcare affiliate, Alter+Care," says Michael J. Alter, company president.
"For more than 60 years, we have been a pioneer – first in housing communities; then in large industrial parks; and then in corporate homes for America's most iconic brands, including AT&T, GE, Prudential and Google," he adds. "Just this year, we have helped companies such as Salesforce, WeWork and GlobalTranz to create major new beachheads in important markets nationally."
As reported in GlobeSt.com, earlier this year Alter made up for the loss of Google, its anchor tenant at 20 W. Kinzie St. in River North, by signing a new lease with WeWork, a global operator of collaborative workspaces, for 105,000 square feet in the 17-story, 385,000 square foot class A office building.
"As one of the country's top development firms, Alter understands that building a building or executing a substantial lease is an important event in a company's history," says Richard M. Gatto, executive vice president. "It allows a firm to express its brand in the built environment, creating a sense of culture and community among vastly different types of people. When buildings and spaces succeed, they speak equally to resident workers, mobile workers and distributed teams; at the same time they radiate an iconic image to customers and the capital markets."
Alter has also taken advantage of the heightened interest investors have shown in the Chicago office market. GLL Real Estate Partners, a Munich-based firm, recently completed the purchase of Alter's One11 West Illinois, a class A mixed-use office and retail building in River North. Alter developed the building in 2008.
Founded by William A. Alter in 1955, the company has developed close to 100,000,000 square feet of speculative projects for its own portfolio and build-to-suit facilities for corporate users. His son Michael took over more than 20 years ago, but in 2014, he announced that the company would switch strategies because the next generation of Alters was not interested in taking over the family business.
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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.
