This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

Gold Standard Baking completed a sale-leaseback for its 189K SF property at 3700 South Kedzie Ave.

Angelo Gordon, a New York-based institutional fund adviser, purchased the property. Gold Standard, which has occupied the buildings for more than 20 years, has long-term plans to remain there, according to Avison Young, whose Erik Foster, Mike Wilson, Brendan Kelly and Todd Heine represented Gold Standard.

“This portfolio provided investors with tremendous long-term stability, as it is fully leased to a strong-credit tenant,” Foster said in a statement. “The recession-resistant food industry tenant relies on the location for its operations, making this a solid investment with long-term growth potential for the new owner.”

The sale-leaseback represents a component of the broader real estate strategy for Gold Standard Baking, Avison Young said in a release. In the last three years, the company expanded its Chicago site by 22K SF to house a new baking line to meet increased product demand. It also opened a 201K SF bakery in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, in 2017.

EXECS

Kyle Kalkofen joined Greystone as a loan originator. Greystone, a commercial real estate lending, investment and advisory company, is beefing up its team across the country as its small loan platform has set new internal records for transaction volume this year. Since 2014, Greystone has closed over 1,400 small loans totaling over $3.6B, between the Freddie Mac’s Small Balance Loan program and Fannie Mae’s Small Loan Program. The overall average deal size of these is $2.8M.

Greystone also named Clint Darby as the Central Regional Market leader.

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Michael Lupo joined Podolsky Circle CORFAC International as an associate broker. He has five years of experience and specializes in office, medical office and retail brokerage for both landlords and tenants. He was previously with Waveland Property Group

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Steve Schwartz joined JLL as a senior vice president in its Midwest retail team. Through his 15-year career, Schwartz has completed over $200M in sale and lease transactions, including high-profile leases for Chicago flagship locations like Steak 48 and Liberty Travel. He has also helped bring several national retailers, including Current Elliott, to Chicago.

SALES

Venture One Real Estate purchased a 38K SF industrial building at 515 Anderson Drive in Romeoville for $2.85M. Lee & Associates’ Ryan Earley, Jeff Galante and Terry Grapenthin represented the buyer. Early and colleague Caroline Dell have been retained to lease the building.

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Goldman Sachs Asset Management Private Real Estate acquired an approximately 830K SF, 10-building industrial portfolio located primarily in the O’Hare, North Cook and North DuPage submarkets of Chicago. Existing tenants use their respective suites for a variety of functions, including R&D, light manufacturing and distribution.

“We are excited to own industrial product in Chicago’s infill submarkets, which are close to population nodes and skilled labor, as we believe this will be attractive to tenants,” GSAM PRE co-head Joseph Sumberg said.

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An undisclosed out-of-state buyer purchased the 16-unit multifamily property at 7655 South Hermitage in Chicago for $934K. Kiser Group’s Noah Birk and Aaron Sklar represented the seller, local investor Robert Wolfe. Kiser said this is the highest price-per-door transaction in Auburn Gresham.

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An undisclosed buyer purchased a four-unit multifamily property at 1830-1832 West 22nd Place in Pilsen/Little Village. First Western Properties’ Mel Bifsha closed the deal, receiving multiple offers and putting it under contract within 72 hours.

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ML Realty Partners purchased a 67K SF multi-tenant industrial building at 300-330 County Line Road in Bensenville. ML Realty’s Craig Phillips said the location in DuPage County, access to the new Interstate 390 tollway, planned I-294 bypass and Taft Avenue extension drew his company to the building, which has 16K SF available for lease. Colliers’ Jeffrey Devine and Steven Disse represented the seller, and Nicolson Porter & List’s Adam Stokes and Sean Bostrom represented the buyer and will lease the vacancy.

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Bianco Properties purchased St. James Crossing, a 50K SF shopping center at the northwest corner of Route 82 and Ogden Avenue in Westmont. Mid-America Real Estate Corp.’s Rick Drogosz and Joe Girardi represented the seller, IRC Retail Centers.

LEASES

GCG Financial, an Alera Group company, expanded and extended its lease to 45K SF at Three Parkway North in Deerfield. The additional space will accommodate the company’s growth as well as the headquarters of Alera Group, a national insurance brokerage and wealth management firm formed by GCG and its partner organizations in 2017. GCG has been at this address since 2015 and initially occupied 36K SF. Savills Studley’s John Goodman and Marc Brash represented GCG in the long-term transaction. Colliers’ Steve Kling and Darryl Silverman represented the building's ownership, Fulcrum Properties.

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Colliers’ Francis Prock and David Florent signed several leases — totaling 75K SF — at Woodland Corporate Tower, 1333 Butterfield Road in Downers Grove. The recent activity brings the property to 93% leased.

• Elkay signed a new, 47K SF headquarters lease.

• Securitas signed a long-term extension on its existing 18K SF lease.

• Pinkerton leased 2,145 SF.

• Advizor Solutions expanded from 3,500 to 4,020 SF.

• Martin Whalen Office Solutions leased 2,900 SF for its regional office.

Owner Stanton Road Capital this month began a $2M renovation of the property to update common areas and add a “grab and go” food service, a new tenant lounge and a fitness center. Stanton purchased the property, which was 48% leased at the time, in October. Colliers’ Jeffrey Schneider will oversee the work, which will be completed by Q4.

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Fifield Realty’s The Sinclair, a 390-unit luxury apartment project at 1201 North LaSalle St., has been leasing an average of 32 units per month since it opened in August. The 35-story tower hit 95% occupancy July 1.

DEVELOPMENT

Skender, serving as general contractor, completed interior construction of a 207K SF office for C.H. Robinson, a Fortune 500 third-party logistics and supply chain management provider. The office at 1515 West Webster is the first riverfront property in Sterling Bay’s Lincoln Yards development, a contender for the Amazon HQ2 bid.

C.H. Robinson relocated from 1840 North Marcey St. The new, technology-rich office space includes open office workstation areas, private offices, conference rooms of varying sizes, two reception areas, a warming pantry and large café, a 5K SF roof terrace with unobstructed views of downtown Chicago and an open atrium that cuts through all four floors of the firm’s space.

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CA Residential, joint venture partner K Giles and equity partner Diamond Realty Investments celebrated the grand opening of Eleven40, a mixed-use, transit-oriented development at 1140 South Wabash Ave. in Chicago’s South Loop. Less than two months after welcoming its first residents, the 26-story, 320-unit tower is nearly 85% leased. SCB designed the property, with interiors by BKV Group. The Habitat Co. is providing property management services for Eleven40. Lendlease served as general contractor for the development.

FINANCING

Ready Capital Structured Finance closed nonrecourse loans in Washington, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, New York and California totaling approximately $70M. The Chicago loan is for the refinance and lease-up of a 38K SF office property on West Carroll Avenue in the Fulton Market/River West submarket. The property was repositioned from an industrial warehouse to an office building. Ready Capital Structured Finance closed the $7.9M nonrecourse floating rate loan that features a 36-month term, flexible pre-payment, and is inclusive of a facility to provide future funding for capital improvements to the building, leasing costs and interest reserves during the renovation and lease-up.

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Greystone provided a $77M Fannie Mae DUS loan to refinance Park West Apartments in Griffith, Indiana. The transaction was originated by Greystone’s Dan Sacks and Eric Rosenstock. Park West Apartments, formerly known as The Mansards, has 1,337 units and was acquired by Bayshore Properties in 2016. After stabilizing the property and heavily investing in renovations, the property’s value increased substantially, enabling a significant amount of cash-out proceeds with the 12-year, fixed-rate Fannie Mae loan, which includes six years of interest only. The financing allowed Bayshore CEO Nick Kozul and Chief Financial Officer Robert Lambros to assume sole ownership of the property.

THIS AND THAT

Pembrook Capital Management donated to the Louis Pasteur Elementary School, which serves low-income communities in the Southwest side of Chicago. The donation is part of the company’s program to provide financial support to public schools in neighborhoods where it does business, a program targeted to total up to 3% of the firm’s annual profits. This most recent one is matched to Pembrook’s recently closed $20.3M first mortgage loan for Icarus Investment Group’s acquisition and renovation of a 23-building portfolio on the Southwest side. The contribution will go to development program Time to Teach at Louis Pasteur.

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Newmark Knight Frank was appointed as the leasing agent and property manager of 544 Lakeview Parkway in Vernon Hills. A JV of Ravinia Capital Group and other private investors, operating as 544 Lakeview LLC, recently acquired the 139K SF Class-A office property. It has capital improvements planned. NKF’s Rob Lundin and Michael Adams will lead the leasing team while Samuel Delisi will head the management assignment. The property was sold 70% leased, and NKF said in a release that negotiations are underway, with a tenant expected to occupy approximately 3.2% of new space by the fourth quarter.

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Mobile Doorman closed on a $2M Series A round from Chicago-based Reimagined Ventures, an investment arm of the Alec Litowitz family office. Founded by Chicago-based Bob Matteson, Mobile Doorman specializes in the creation of white-labeled apps for the multifamily industry. Since launching its first property in Chicago in 2014, Mobile Doorman has expanded to 28 states and more than 50 markets throughout the United States. The new round of funding will be used for the brand’s continued penetration into the U.S. multifamily market and further integration with smart home technology.