Fish Tales: Part I

Looks like Bisnow Chicago readers can reel in more than major tenants, investment sales, and ground-up projects. Here's the first installment of fish tales from three intrepid fisherman.

Cushman & Wakefield senior associate Jack Siragusa gets top billing for sending us this picture of a blacktip shark he caught while fishing on the beach in Jupiter, Fla., over the holidays. The sharks tend to break off lures, but Jack knew what he was up against and fought valiantly for a half hour to reel it in. He recently handled the initial rollout for Pure Barre in Chicago and says the health sector of retail is hot right now in terms of small fitness users (usually based around specific workouts), and healthy-eating chains (Protein Bar, My Fit Foods, plus Snap Kitchen is coming soon). Both are targeting similar high-density areas filled with young, educated, and health-conscious consumers, he adds.

NAI Hiffman VP Chris Gary (left) caught this lake trout on a recent fishing trip to Lake Wollaston in Northern Saskatchewan. He’s seeing strong activity in his larger Class-A industrial listings right now and says the market continues to improve, especially for core industrial in core submarkets. And that upward trajectory should continue if interest rates stay favorable. Recently Chris has noticed more investment dollars coming from out of town, with groups like Dallas-based Westmount Realty Capital and Boston-based STAG Industrial making sizable local buys in the past few months.

Bear Construction account executive Bill Ziemek wistfully told us a tale about the one that got away on an ice fishing trip with friends up in Door County, Wis. They augered three 10” holes in Lake Michigan and set up a comfortable tent complete with pot belly stove, thermoses of hot coffee, and other drinks. After an hour or so, a flag tipped up on the line nearest to him. All they saw was an eyeball bulging out from the hole, rotating around, sizing them up. (How we imagine it, above.) As quickly as it came, it went, snapping the line and disappearing below. “Who knows how big this fish was! We were all quite excited and also relieved we didn’t have to battle this monster… and went back to drinking,” Bill jokes. Next time. It's not too late to send [email protected] your fish tales for our next installment!