CHICAGO-Work has begun on redeveloping over 100 acres of the enormous former U.S. Steel South Works in Chicago. The site will be home to a new Solo Cup factory by 2004; a lakefront park is also under way nearby.

OAK LAWN, IL-Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank plans to develop a major lockbox facility here, mirroring a similar operation in its hometown. The 25,000-sf facility will eventually employ 150 people.

CHICAGO-Work has begun on redeveloping over 100 acres of the enormous former U.S. Steel South Works in Chicago. The site will be home to a new Solo Cup factory by 2004; a lakefront park is also under way nearby.

CHICAGO-In a recent conference call to Equity investors, Sam Zell, chairman of Equity Office Properties, offered his opinion that the U.S. economy is indeed on the mend, and that the office sector will recover as well, albeit slowly.

LONG GROVE, IL-Kemper Insurance has sold a large parcel of excess vacant land in north suburban Chicago to a partnership that wants to prepare it for sale to residential developers.

GLENVIEW, IL-The most significant redevelopment currently under way in north suburban Chicago has taken a large financial leap forward with the finalization of a TIF for the project. It is thought to be the largest tax-increment financing ever awarded in Illinois.

CHICAGO-In the last days of October, two more office buildings in Downtown Chicago traded hands, one to a West Coast investor not previously in the Chicago market, the other to a local investor not previously in the Downtown market.

ROSEMONT, IL-With capital from insurance giant MetLife and the construction expertise of McShane Corp., a Chicago-area general contractor, the new partnership aims to build industrial facilities nationwide.