Home builder goes commercial
REAL ESTATE | Hoffman is developer for Long Grove plaza
What's an idled home builder to do while the housing market nurses its hangover? Some are battling off creditors, others are lying low. But Buz Hoffman, president of Lakewood Homes, is selling his knowledge as a developer.
A home builder has skills that translate to commercial projects. The home builder knows about land planning, entitlements, construction management and much more. So Hoffman has signed on as the hired developer for a shopping center under way in the picturesque village of Long Grove.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times file)
Hoffman's Lakewood Real Estate Solutions is working with the property's owner, Pinnacle Capital Group, on the $30 million, 141,000-square-foot project. It's due to open in about a year at the southeast corner of Illinois Highway 83 and Aptakisic Road.
With few investors coveting new retail space, this plaza got financing because its anchor tenant is a grocery store, which is considered to be an exceptionally stable type of tenant. Sunset Foods, with four stores in the northern suburbs, will anchor what will be called the Sunset Grove shopping center.
Hoffman called the deal "a forerunner of the type of projects we look to do in the future."
Mid-America Development Partners started planning for the site started a few years ago. It dropped out, but Mid-America President Mike Firsel remains a consultant in the deal.
Even the big names have to do what they can.
DEAR MAYOR DALEY: Your bulldozers are hard at work tearing down what's left of the former Michael Reese Hospital campus. It seems as if you are doing this out of spite because the city lost the 2016 Olympics bid, in which the Reese site figured prominently.
Otherwise, why ignore the input from landmarks advocates, who say that parts of the campus attributed to a highly regarded architect, Walter Gropius, should be saved?
Perhaps you feel their regard for Gropius is misplaced or that they are exaggerating his input in the campus. But there's time to look at those issues. You are clearing nearly 37 acres on the Near South Side when your administration has no clue what will go there or when. It will be years before a private investor is bold enough to start condos there. Destroying the buildings now could cost that investor a chance at tax credits for preserving them.
Really, Mr. Mayor, what's the rush?
PRESIDENTIAL SEAL: Waterton Associates LLC has sealed agreements for two leases in its renovation of the commercial space at Presidential Towers, the four-building apartment complex at 555 W. Madison. First to commit are Fitness Formula Clubs, which will take 52,000 square feet on two levels and replace an existing health club, and Yolk restaurant, a breakfast and lunch operation that has locations in the South Loop and River North.
Waterton is starting the renovation and a fall 2010 opening for some retailers is expected. The work will expose the towers' stores to pedestrian traffic and do away with its current indoor mall layout.
NEW FIRMS: Michael Brennan, forced out a year ago as chief executive of First Industrial Realty Trust, has surfaced with his own Chicago-based investment firm that will target industrial real estate across the U.S. His partners include Kareem Fikri, who will concentrate on Chicago. Fikri managed the first industrial property fund that's compliant with Islamic law.
Also, Oak Realty Group Inc. has joined with apartment development expert Richard Wise to form Oak Residential Partners LLC. It will scope out deals in large apartment buildings.
CALENDAR NOTE: The Chicago chapter of the Urban Land Institute will host author Jonathan Miller, discussing the 2010 edition of his "Emerging Trends in Real Estate" report and local experts will be on hand to react. It's the evening of Nov. 19 at the Renaissance Chicago, 1 W. Wacker. See Chicago.uli.org.
DOING THE DEALS: NAI Hiffman represented Panattoni Development Co. in its $6.25 million acquisition of a 163,000-square-foot industrial building at 1186 Arbor Drive, Romeoville. Prudential Real Estate Investors was the seller. ?183-142? Ryan Cos. US Inc. sold a 100,000-square-foot industrial building to the Seigle family, former owners of a lumber and building supply business. The price for the fully leased building was $6.5 million.
Grubb & Ellis Co. represented Akton Realty in its sale of a 50,000-square-foot office building at 8303 W. Higgins. Evangelical Covenant Church paid $5.9 million for the building and plans to occupy it early in 2010.
Deringer-Ney, a maker of precision metal components, sold 10 acres at 1250 Townline Road, Mundelein, to Medline Industries Inc., with CB Richard Ellis Inc. brokering the deal. Selling price could not be determined, but the asking price was $4.15 million.
Darwin Realty & Development Corp. represented AIM Fiber in its lease of 107,000 square feet at 11939 S. Central, Alsip.
Holly Duran Real Estate Partners LLC, which has represented CME Group Inc. since 1980, traveled to Singapore to negotiate the exchange company's lease of 4,000 square feet on the top floor of the Singapore Land Tower.