NEWS & NOTABLES

CHICAGO—Ware Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, has announced that it will open a second office in the Chicago metro area. Located at 600 W. Jackson, this West Loop location will expand the firm's design services in the Chicago market. The firm has opened or relocated offices in the vibrant downtown areas of several major US cities over the past year, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and San Diego. Dawn Riegel, director, interior architecture and design at Ware Malcomb, will oversee the new office, as well as continue to lead the interiors practice in the firm's existing office in suburban Oak Brook.

PALATINE, IL—Proper Title, LLC, a full-service title insurance agency, has hired David Garside as executive vice president of title and escrow operations. Garside will manage the agency's processing, closing and overall title operations. He has 20 years of experience in real estate, with 14 years dedicated to the title insurance industry. Prior to joining Proper Title, Garside, 46, had served for seven years as vice president, director of operations of Fort Dearborn Title. Over the past three years, Proper Title has grown its transaction volume by 400% and revenue by 420%. It is now the second-largest title insurance agency in the state.

INDIANAPOLIS—On Thursday, September 29, at the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. Indiana/Kentucky 2016 Merit Shop Construction Awards Gala, Holladay Properties received the Award of Excellence in merit shop construction for the Grand Park Events Center project in Westfield, IN. ABC recognizes those companies and individuals whose performance and integrity have made an impact on the industry and the Grand Park Events Center has certainly been a boost to the City of Westfield. The 377,000 square foot building is the largest indoor sports arena in North America, housing three regulation fields capable of adapting to many sports and events.

CHICAGO—Industry veterans Bryan Jacobs and Brian Velo have just joined Cushman & Wakefield as executive vice presidents of enterprise solutions under the company's global occupier services platform, which focuses on developing new, large, integrated services outsourcing contracts that include strategic consulting, integrated facilities management, transaction management, portfolio administration and business intelligence, and project and development services. Velo will operate out of the firm's Chicago office and develop and expand its client base in the Central, Eastern, and Southeastern US. Jacobs will work in Los Angeles and expand the client base in the West, Southwest, and Rocky Mountain states.

OAK BROOK, IL—Denise Faber has joined Inland Securities Corp., the exclusive dealer-manager and placement agent for real estate investment programs sponsored by Inland Real Estate Investment Corp. and Inland Private Capital Corp., as senior vice president – investment product research. She will be responsible for the due diligence of all investment products distributed by the company and support its sales efforts at the industry, broker-dealer and wholesaler levels. Faber comes to Inland Securities Corporation from Advisor Group, where she served as vice president – director of investment research.

DEALTRACKER

INDIANAPOLIS—Colliers International has closed the sale of Waterfront Office Park at 2611-2780 Waterfront Parkway E Dr., a 201,276 square foot, four-building Class B+ office park located in the West submarket of Indianapolis. Colliers Indianapolis | Capital Markets division lead by Alex Cantu and office brokers Rich Forslund and Matt Langfeldt marketed the property on behalf of the seller, New Boston Fund. An undisclosed buyer purchased the asset.

SCHAUMBURG, IL—Kinema Fitness, a national fitness center management company, just started a new collaboration with Zurich Insurance by opening a 20,000 square foot fitness center located at the new North America headquarters in Schaumburg, IL. The new Zurich North American headquarters is a 783,800 square foot LEED Platinum Certified building. The fitness center has two large group exercise rooms, indoor cycling facility, saunas, large cardio and strength room with premium fitness equipment, mother's wing and juice bar.

TOLEDO, OH—CPA®:17 – Global has acquired a distribution and light manufacturing facility in Perrysburg, OH, a suburb of Toledo, for about $14 million. The facility is net leased to First Solar, Inc. for a period of ten years. The seller was InSite Real Estate, LLC, a regional developer based in suburban Chicago. The facility is a critical one, as it is less than five miles from First Solar's only domestic manufacturing facility. Recently renovated with $4 million in improvements, the 391,700 square foot facility serves primarily as warehousing for solar panels, with about 80,000 square feet dedicated to light assembly.

ITASCA, IL—The robust user demand for industrial properties in the Chicago suburbs also means investors are interested. Craig J. Phillips, vice president of ML Realty Partners, recently announced that the firm had acquired a fully leased, three-building, industrial portfolio in DuPage County encompassing 227,196 square feet. Located in Itasca and Naperville, the portfolio includes the following properties: 1345 Norwood Ave. in Itasca; 905-909 Irving Park Rd. in Itasca; and 1001 Frontenac Rd.in Naperville. “The buildings are extremely well-maintained and are located within two of the most active industrial submarkets in Chicago,” says Phillips. “The facilities provide tenants easy access to major thoroughfares and are already demised to sizes appropriate for their locations.”

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—Hillary Taatjes Woznick and Doug Taatjes of NAI Wisinski West Michigan have just brokered the sale of a fully leased, 9,120 square-foot investment property located at 436 44^th St. in Kentwood, MI. NAI Wisinski represented the seller, Gretchen 436, LLC in this transaction. Tony Pearson of True North represented the buyer, Vandoe LLC. “We had three prospective buyers make offers within one week,” says Taatjes Woznick. “This is another example that there are more investors in the market than there are good investment properties available.”

CHICAGO—Tishman Realty recently signed a lease with Champs Sports, a division of athletic apparel retailer Foot Locker, for 16,037 square feet at the newly redeveloped 100 S. State St. in Chicago's Loop. Champs will occupy 7,227 square feet on the ground floor and 8,810 square feet on the second floor. It will take control of the space in mid-October. Tishman and a partner bought the iconic former home of Amalgamated Bank in 2015 and has already brought in other notable tenants. WeWork, for example, one of the top office co-working companies in the world, will occupy 43,200 square feet of office space on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the building. There is currently 9,900 square feet of remaining retail space in the building.

PLATTEVILLE, WI—The Boulder Group, a brokerage firm in Northbrook, IL, recently completed the sale of a single tenant Goodwill property located at 2001 Progressive Pkwy. in Platteville, WI, for $1,650,000. The outlet sits along US Rte. 151 adjacent to a Walmart Supercenter and a Menards. The seller and buyer were both Midwest based private partnerships. Goodwill's lease expires on November 30, 2018. The absolute triple net lease features 3% annual escalations in the primary term and the two 5-year renewal option periods.

BUILDING BLOCKS

CREVE COEUR, MO—Senior Lifestyle Corp. has just opened a welcome center at 453 N. Lindbergh Blvd. for The Sheridan in Creve Coeur, the second of several senior living communities it plans to create in the St. Louis metro area and the only one that will focus solely on residents afflicted with dementia, including Alzheimer's. The Chicago-based national owner, operator and developer of senior housing communities, plans to open this $17 million facility and its 53 living units in early 2017. The building will host 42,000 square feet of finished space, including nearly 14,000 square feet of common area including family-style great rooms, gourmet kitchen areas, dining rooms, sun porch and fitness space. “Residents will participate in purposeful programs that provide opportunity for meaningful moments each and every day,” says Hollie Kemp, SLC national director of programming.

HOPKINSVILLE, KY—Thompson Thrift Development broke ground August 16 on Hopkinsville Towne Center, a 185,000 square foot retail project. Situated in Hopkinsville in western Kentucky, the center will soon host several recognized names in value retail. The Shopping Center Group team of Kevin Schreiber and Kevin Mayhugh are the exclusive leasing agents representing Thompson. The tenant line-up already includes Hobby Lobby, TJ Maxx, Ross Dress for Less, Rue 21, Ulta, Burke's Outlet, Hibbett Sporting Goods, Rack Room Shoes, Maurice's, Cato and Panera Bread with several other retailers in final lease negotiations.

This week Colliers International put out some interesting numbers on the Chicago region's industrial market. With so many developers launching spec projects, some had started to question whether all this new space was getting absorbed. And Colliers discovered that of the 25.1 million square feet of speculative space completed here since 2013, about 34% remains vacant. Some might say that is a cause for concern, but researchers say that figure has been declining for several years. And what they say they will be watching is whether that number starts to creep up in the next year or two as millions of additional spec space hits the market. If it does not, it's a sign that the tenants are there, and developers can have confidence that their buildings will eventually get filled. Chicago may be in the situation Indianapolis found itself not long ago. After a historic burst of speculative construction in that hot distribution market, leasing slowed down for a bit, and some wondered if the region was overbuilt. But after a pause in 2015, tenants largely sorted out which of the new buildings were best-suited for their operations, and leased much of that vacant space in the latter part of the year and in 2016.—Brian J. Rogal

BY THE NUMBERS

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—The office market here does not get the same amount of notice as nearby Detroit or Chicago. But both city and suburbs have relatively low vacancy rates, according to the latest numbers produced by NAI Wisinski West Michigan. Just 9.7% of the class A space in downtown is vacant, versus 6.6% for the B and C properties. Overall, 7.7% of the space in the 28 million square foot market is vacant.

CHICAGO—Developers will complete 7,500 new apartments this year in the Chicago metro area, the greatest period of construction since 2000 by nearly 1,300 units, according to Marcus & Millichap's latest report on the multifamily market. “In 2015, Chicagoland recorded a gain of more than 5,800 rentals, the majority of which came online in the second half of the year,” researchers found. Furthermore, the average effective rent will rise 5.4% this year with Chicagoland renters paying an average of $1,380 per month. The market achieved a rent improvement of 5.1% in 2015.

NEWS & NOTABLES

CHICAGO—Ware Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, has announced that it will open a second office in the Chicago metro area. Located at 600 W. Jackson, this West Loop location will expand the firm's design services in the Chicago market. The firm has opened or relocated offices in the vibrant downtown areas of several major US cities over the past year, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and San Diego. Dawn Riegel, director, interior architecture and design at Ware Malcomb, will oversee the new office, as well as continue to lead the interiors practice in the firm's existing office in suburban Oak Brook.

PALATINE, IL—Proper Title, LLC, a full-service title insurance agency, has hired David Garside as executive vice president of title and escrow operations. Garside will manage the agency's processing, closing and overall title operations. He has 20 years of experience in real estate, with 14 years dedicated to the title insurance industry. Prior to joining Proper Title, Garside, 46, had served for seven years as vice president, director of operations of Fort Dearborn Title. Over the past three years, Proper Title has grown its transaction volume by 400% and revenue by 420%. It is now the second-largest title insurance agency in the state.

INDIANAPOLIS—On Thursday, September 29, at the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. Indiana/Kentucky 2016 Merit Shop Construction Awards Gala, Holladay Properties received the Award of Excellence in merit shop construction for the Grand Park Events Center project in Westfield, IN. ABC recognizes those companies and individuals whose performance and integrity have made an impact on the industry and the Grand Park Events Center has certainly been a boost to the City of Westfield. The 377,000 square foot building is the largest indoor sports arena in North America, housing three regulation fields capable of adapting to many sports and events.

CHICAGO—Industry veterans Bryan Jacobs and Brian Velo have just joined Cushman & Wakefield as executive vice presidents of enterprise solutions under the company's global occupier services platform, which focuses on developing new, large, integrated services outsourcing contracts that include strategic consulting, integrated facilities management, transaction management, portfolio administration and business intelligence, and project and development services. Velo will operate out of the firm's Chicago office and develop and expand its client base in the Central, Eastern, and Southeastern US. Jacobs will work in Los Angeles and expand the client base in the West, Southwest, and Rocky Mountain states.

OAK BROOK, IL—Denise Faber has joined Inland Securities Corp., the exclusive dealer-manager and placement agent for real estate investment programs sponsored by Inland Real Estate Investment Corp. and Inland Private Capital Corp., as senior vice president – investment product research. She will be responsible for the due diligence of all investment products distributed by the company and support its sales efforts at the industry, broker-dealer and wholesaler levels. Faber comes to Inland Securities Corporation from Advisor Group, where she served as vice president – director of investment research.

DEALTRACKER

INDIANAPOLIS—Colliers International has closed the sale of Waterfront Office Park at 2611-2780 Waterfront Parkway E Dr., a 201,276 square foot, four-building Class B+ office park located in the West submarket of Indianapolis. Colliers Indianapolis | Capital Markets division lead by Alex Cantu and office brokers Rich Forslund and Matt Langfeldt marketed the property on behalf of the seller, New Boston Fund. An undisclosed buyer purchased the asset.

SCHAUMBURG, IL—Kinema Fitness, a national fitness center management company, just started a new collaboration with Zurich Insurance by opening a 20,000 square foot fitness center located at the new North America headquarters in Schaumburg, IL. The new Zurich North American headquarters is a 783,800 square foot LEED Platinum Certified building. The fitness center has two large group exercise rooms, indoor cycling facility, saunas, large cardio and strength room with premium fitness equipment, mother's wing and juice bar.

TOLEDO, OH—CPA®:17 – Global has acquired a distribution and light manufacturing facility in Perrysburg, OH, a suburb of Toledo, for about $14 million. The facility is net leased to First Solar, Inc. for a period of ten years. The seller was InSite Real Estate, LLC, a regional developer based in suburban Chicago. The facility is a critical one, as it is less than five miles from First Solar's only domestic manufacturing facility. Recently renovated with $4 million in improvements, the 391,700 square foot facility serves primarily as warehousing for solar panels, with about 80,000 square feet dedicated to light assembly.

ITASCA, IL—The robust user demand for industrial properties in the Chicago suburbs also means investors are interested. Craig J. Phillips, vice president of ML Realty Partners, recently announced that the firm had acquired a fully leased, three-building, industrial portfolio in DuPage County encompassing 227,196 square feet. Located in Itasca and Naperville, the portfolio includes the following properties: 1345 Norwood Ave. in Itasca; 905-909 Irving Park Rd. in Itasca; and 1001 Frontenac Rd.in Naperville. “The buildings are extremely well-maintained and are located within two of the most active industrial submarkets in Chicago,” says Phillips. “The facilities provide tenants easy access to major thoroughfares and are already demised to sizes appropriate for their locations.”

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—Hillary Taatjes Woznick and Doug Taatjes of NAI Wisinski West Michigan have just brokered the sale of a fully leased, 9,120 square-foot investment property located at 436 44^th St. in Kentwood, MI. NAI Wisinski represented the seller, Gretchen 436, LLC in this transaction. Tony Pearson of True North represented the buyer, Vandoe LLC. “We had three prospective buyers make offers within one week,” says Taatjes Woznick. “This is another example that there are more investors in the market than there are good investment properties available.”

CHICAGO—Tishman Realty recently signed a lease with Champs Sports, a division of athletic apparel retailer Foot Locker, for 16,037 square feet at the newly redeveloped 100 S. State St. in Chicago's Loop. Champs will occupy 7,227 square feet on the ground floor and 8,810 square feet on the second floor. It will take control of the space in mid-October. Tishman and a partner bought the iconic former home of Amalgamated Bank in 2015 and has already brought in other notable tenants. WeWork, for example, one of the top office co-working companies in the world, will occupy 43,200 square feet of office space on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the building. There is currently 9,900 square feet of remaining retail space in the building.

PLATTEVILLE, WI—The Boulder Group, a brokerage firm in Northbrook, IL, recently completed the sale of a single tenant Goodwill property located at 2001 Progressive Pkwy. in Platteville, WI, for $1,650,000. The outlet sits along US Rte. 151 adjacent to a Walmart Supercenter and a Menards. The seller and buyer were both Midwest based private partnerships. Goodwill's lease expires on November 30, 2018. The absolute triple net lease features 3% annual escalations in the primary term and the two 5-year renewal option periods.

BUILDING BLOCKS

CREVE COEUR, MO—Senior Lifestyle Corp. has just opened a welcome center at 453 N. Lindbergh Blvd. for The Sheridan in Creve Coeur, the second of several senior living communities it plans to create in the St. Louis metro area and the only one that will focus solely on residents afflicted with dementia, including Alzheimer's. The Chicago-based national owner, operator and developer of senior housing communities, plans to open this $17 million facility and its 53 living units in early 2017. The building will host 42,000 square feet of finished space, including nearly 14,000 square feet of common area including family-style great rooms, gourmet kitchen areas, dining rooms, sun porch and fitness space. “Residents will participate in purposeful programs that provide opportunity for meaningful moments each and every day,” says Hollie Kemp, SLC national director of programming.

HOPKINSVILLE, KY—Thompson Thrift Development broke ground August 16 on Hopkinsville Towne Center, a 185,000 square foot retail project. Situated in Hopkinsville in western Kentucky, the center will soon host several recognized names in value retail. The Shopping Center Group team of Kevin Schreiber and Kevin Mayhugh are the exclusive leasing agents representing Thompson. The tenant line-up already includes Hobby Lobby, TJ Maxx, Ross Dress for Less, Rue 21, Ulta, Burke's Outlet, Hibbett Sporting Goods, Rack Room Shoes, Maurice's, Cato and Panera Bread with several other retailers in final lease negotiations.