CHICAGO—Chicago-based Renovo Financial, a private lender to residential real estate investors, has hired asset management expert Peter G. Poidomani as executive vice president of portfolio management to help oversee the firm's portfolio and strengthen its ability to keep expanding. Founded in 2011, in partnership with Chicago-based private equity firm Granite Creek Partners, Renovo Financial has loaned more than $250 million to residential real estate investors on revitalization projects valued in excess of $400 million. The firm closed its 1000^th loan in December and saw its revenue increase over 100% from 2015 to 2016. “Peter brings 20 years of industry experience and his knowledge as the former director of real estate asset management at Fannie Mae will be a huge asset to Renovo,” says Kevin Werner, chief executive officer at Renovo Financial.

CHICAGO—The number of luxury homes sold in the Chicago area rose modestly in 2016, but those properties, all selling for $1 million or more, spent noticeably longer on the market, according to the year-end edition of the RE/MAX Luxury Report on Metro Chicago Real Estate. Luxury sales totaled 2,423 units in 2016, 3% more than during 2015. The average time required to find a buyer was 165 days, up from 135 days in 2015, a 22% increase. The median sales price for those properties was $1,325,000, compared to $1,340,000 in 2015, which translates to a 1% decline. The luxury segment of the Chicago-area housing market was notably more sluggish than the metro housing market as a whole last year, notes Jack Kreider, executive vice president and regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois, which does a quarterly analysis of $1 million-plus home sales in the seven-county metro area from data compiled by Midwest Real Estate Data.

DEALTRACKER

KANSAS CITY—Hunt Midwest has just sold two hotel sites within Hunt Midwest Commerce Center, a 140-acre commercial development located near I-435 and Parvin Rd. The transactions will result in the construction and opening of a 90-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott and a 126-room Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites in 2018. The new hotels will join more than 15 businesses within Hunt Midwest Commerce Center, which is part of Hunt Midwest's 2,500-acre, master-planned development. Two additional restaurant sites remain available at HMCC. “We are seeing a lot of activity at Hunt Midwest Commerce Center from companies who like its location as well as its visibility to more than 65,000 vehicles along I-435 every day,” says Mike Bell, Hunt Midwest's vice president of commercial development. “Other benefits of an HMCC location that commercial users appreciate are flexible lot sizes, transaction terms, architectural freedom and available incentives.”

MINNEAPOLIS—Monument Capital Management, a Miami-based real estate investment firm, has just entered the Minnesota market by acquiring Lexington Hills Apartments in Eagan, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company bought the rental community on behalf of a set of private investors. Its sister company, Monument Real Estate Services, will manage the project. Located at 4116 Lexington Ave. South, the seven-building community has had more than $1.8 million in recent upgrades to many of the units and common areas. Monument plans to continue the upgrades. Lexington Hills' amenities include a clubhouse with an outdoor lounge area, fitness center, swimming pool and detached garages. “Its location and amenities creates a great sense of place for the residents, making it an ideal long-term investment for Monument,” says Stuart Zook, chief investment officer of Monument Capital Management.

BUILDING BLOCKS

AMES, IA—The Opus Group has just completed Geoffroy Hall, a 193,000–square-foot residence hall on the Iowa State University campus in Ames. The eight-story, 784-bed building was built to meet increased demand for on-campus housing and represents the first new residence hall at ISU in more than a decade. Located near the Memorial Union, the new hall has a total of 392 rooms and features a number of formal and informal gathering spaces, including a large activity room, various study areas and community spaces on each floor. Additionally, Opus introduced the concept of “front porch” spaces that serve as areas for residents to socialize and meet in groups. This design element reflects ISU's tradition of grouping students living on each floor into a “house.” The building was also designed to meet LEED Gold certification. The project adds to the Minneapolis-based firm's student housing portfolio in IA, which includes The Foundry, a luxury student housing complex located adjacent to Iowa State's campus.

CLEVELAND—Home2 Suites by Hilton, part of Hilton's All Suites portfolio, has just opened its newest property, Home2 Suites by Hilton Cleveland Beachwood, in Beachwood, OH, a suburb of Cleveland. Company officials say the hotel, which features 91 suites and a range of value, tech-focused and eco-conscious amenities, will profit from the greater Cleveland area's yearly growth in tourism, which brought in a record high of 17.6 million visitors in the last reported year. “With our dynamic sports teams and attractions, more visitors are visiting Cleveland annually,” says Mike O'Neill, general manager. “Our spacious and value-driven extended stay accommodations are a grand slam for those seeking a fresh, new way to travel.”

CHICAGO—It would be difficult to point to a real weak spot in the Chicago real estate market. The last couple of weeks have been full of encouraging signs. The city and the surrounding region have continued to exert a gravitational pull on Midwest corporations. Officials from Caterpillar, for example, said they plan to move the company's headquarters from its longtime home in Peoria to the Chicago metro area, although they have not nailed down an exact location. It will become just one of many corporations that decided it needs Chicago's global transportation options, and with city officials now putting forward plans to greatly expand O'Hare Airport's capacity, there is every reason to expect this type of migration to continue. Chicago also got another reminder of its global reputation this week due to the impending purchase of 181 W. Madison by a Chinese group. HNA Group will pay about $360 million for the property, which has more than 900,000 square feet. After some record-setting years for overseas investment, especially from buyers in Asia, Canada and Germany, the Chicago market saw a big slowdown in 2016. This latest move illustrates that overseas investors still consider the US in general, and Chicago's office market in particular, a stable place to park their money. It can't escape the notice of potential investors that developers here have had great success in creating new office submarkets, such as Fulton Market, that users are flocking into. Malmesbury, England-based Dyson said this week that it would expand its US headquarters, adding about 100 new employees once it moves from River North and into more than 40,000 square feet at Sterling Bay's Fulton West.

But it's not just the region's office market that is showing signs of strength. The industrial sector continues to make impressive gains. This week, Cushman & Wakefield closed two leasing transactions at O'Hare Peninsula Business Park to bring that park, a seven-building, class A development in Elk Grove Village with more than 250,000 square feet, to 100% leased. It's not the only local business park to reach full capacity, and that has developers keen to break ground on additional projects. The Opus Group just announced that it would develop a third speculative building at its Paragon Business Park in Romeoville after successfully constructing and selling two other speculative industrial developments in 2016. And as experts don't expect any slowdown to hit the Chicago industrial market in 2017, the demand needed to fill new speculative structures definitely exists.

NEWS & NOTABLES

CHICAGO—Chicago-based Renovo Financial, a private lender to residential real estate investors, has hired asset management expert Peter G. Poidomani as executive vice president of portfolio management to help oversee the firm's portfolio and strengthen its ability to keep expanding. Founded in 2011, in partnership with Chicago-based private equity firm Granite Creek Partners, Renovo Financial has loaned more than $250 million to residential real estate investors on revitalization projects valued in excess of $400 million. The firm closed its 1000^th loan in December and saw its revenue increase over 100% from 2015 to 2016. “Peter brings 20 years of industry experience and his knowledge as the former director of real estate asset management at Fannie Mae will be a huge asset to Renovo,” says Kevin Werner, chief executive officer at Renovo Financial.

CHICAGO—The number of luxury homes sold in the Chicago area rose modestly in 2016, but those properties, all selling for $1 million or more, spent noticeably longer on the market, according to the year-end edition of the RE/MAX Luxury Report on Metro Chicago Real Estate. Luxury sales totaled 2,423 units in 2016, 3% more than during 2015. The average time required to find a buyer was 165 days, up from 135 days in 2015, a 22% increase. The median sales price for those properties was $1,325,000, compared to $1,340,000 in 2015, which translates to a 1% decline. The luxury segment of the Chicago-area housing market was notably more sluggish than the metro housing market as a whole last year, notes Jack Kreider, executive vice president and regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois, which does a quarterly analysis of $1 million-plus home sales in the seven-county metro area from data compiled by Midwest Real Estate Data.

DEALTRACKER

KANSAS CITY—Hunt Midwest has just sold two hotel sites within Hunt Midwest Commerce Center, a 140-acre commercial development located near I-435 and Parvin Rd. The transactions will result in the construction and opening of a 90-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott and a 126-room Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites in 2018. The new hotels will join more than 15 businesses within Hunt Midwest Commerce Center, which is part of Hunt Midwest's 2,500-acre, master-planned development. Two additional restaurant sites remain available at HMCC. “We are seeing a lot of activity at Hunt Midwest Commerce Center from companies who like its location as well as its visibility to more than 65,000 vehicles along I-435 every day,” says Mike Bell, Hunt Midwest's vice president of commercial development. “Other benefits of an HMCC location that commercial users appreciate are flexible lot sizes, transaction terms, architectural freedom and available incentives.”

MINNEAPOLIS—Monument Capital Management, a Miami-based real estate investment firm, has just entered the Minnesota market by acquiring Lexington Hills Apartments in Eagan, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company bought the rental community on behalf of a set of private investors. Its sister company, Monument Real Estate Services, will manage the project. Located at 4116 Lexington Ave. South, the seven-building community has had more than $1.8 million in recent upgrades to many of the units and common areas. Monument plans to continue the upgrades. Lexington Hills' amenities include a clubhouse with an outdoor lounge area, fitness center, swimming pool and detached garages. “Its location and amenities creates a great sense of place for the residents, making it an ideal long-term investment for Monument,” says Stuart Zook, chief investment officer of Monument Capital Management.

BUILDING BLOCKS

AMES, IA—The Opus Group has just completed Geoffroy Hall, a 193,000–square-foot residence hall on the Iowa State University campus in Ames. The eight-story, 784-bed building was built to meet increased demand for on-campus housing and represents the first new residence hall at ISU in more than a decade. Located near the Memorial Union, the new hall has a total of 392 rooms and features a number of formal and informal gathering spaces, including a large activity room, various study areas and community spaces on each floor. Additionally, Opus introduced the concept of “front porch” spaces that serve as areas for residents to socialize and meet in groups. This design element reflects ISU's tradition of grouping students living on each floor into a “house.” The building was also designed to meet LEED Gold certification. The project adds to the Minneapolis-based firm's student housing portfolio in IA, which includes The Foundry, a luxury student housing complex located adjacent to Iowa State's campus.

CLEVELAND—Home2 Suites by Hilton, part of Hilton's All Suites portfolio, has just opened its newest property, Home2 Suites by Hilton Cleveland Beachwood, in Beachwood, OH, a suburb of Cleveland. Company officials say the hotel, which features 91 suites and a range of value, tech-focused and eco-conscious amenities, will profit from the greater Cleveland area's yearly growth in tourism, which brought in a record high of 17.6 million visitors in the last reported year. “With our dynamic sports teams and attractions, more visitors are visiting Cleveland annually,” says Mike O'Neill, general manager. “Our spacious and value-driven extended stay accommodations are a grand slam for those seeking a fresh, new way to travel.”