Goose Island keeps Clybourn brew pub
REAL ESTATE | Lousy economy spurs landlord to change mind, renew beer company's lease at original location
Raise a toast to the lousy economy. The all-but-official recession means Goose Island Beer Co. won't have to close its original brew pub at 1800 N. Clybourn.
The Chicago-based brewer's landlord on Clybourn, Deerfield-based investor Charles Malk, had refused to renew the Goose Island lease that expires at year-end. It's what landlords do when they think they can find somebody else to pay more.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
But the slow market has changed a lot of expectations. John Hall, Goose Island chief executive, said he got the first call about negotiating a renewal last week.
"We have an agreement" covering three to five years, Hall said. "It hasn't been signed. It's a deal in principle. I couldn't be happier."
Hall drew himself a Honker's Ale to celebrate and bought a round for customers Tuesday at the brew pub. He founded the company at the Clybourn space in 1988, where the operation helped revitalize an industrial area plagued by vacant buildings. Goose Island continues to operate a brew pub in Wrigleyville and a brewery at 1800 W. Fulton.
"We are pleased to hear that they will continue to contribute to the unique character of the neighborhood," said Jeff Price of the Ranch Triangle Community Conservation Association.
NEED A TISSUE? Tissue maker Kimberly-Clark Corp. has signed the largest lease of new industrial space in the Chicago area this year. The agreement gives a late-in-the-year lift to a suburban industrial market that has seen vacancies increase because of the slow economy. Kimberly-Clark agreed to a long-term lease of 750,000 square feet at 775 ProLogis Pkwy., Romeoville, with building owner ProLogis. The warehouse opened last year and has been awaiting a tenant.
The deal is the third across the country that Kimberly-Clark has executed with ProLogis. Kimberly-Clark also leases another 800,000 square feet in another building within the same industrial park. Doug Kiersey, senior vice president of ProLogis, said the deal's pushes the occupancy rate at the company's Chicago area properties to 92 percent. Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler Inc. advised Kimberly-Clark in the deal, while Champion Realty Advisors negotiated for ProLogis.
HOT HOTEL DISPUTE: Arguments between hotel management firms and hotel owners often don't enter the public domain. It can be bad for business. But there's a good fight at the Hotel Sofitel O'Hare that has prompted threats from the management chain to leave the premises.
The Sofitel chain, part of Accor, told the state it plans to lay off the hotel's staff of 220 starting Dec. 2. The layoffs might not happen. Sofitel spokeswoman Janice Maragakis said the state notice was required because her firm is accusing the ownership of breach of contract. Sofitel alleges the owner, a division of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., has failed to start a $12 million renovation.
Maragakis said the work is needed to keep the hotel, 5550 N. River Rd. in Rosemont, at Sofitel's standards. She said she hopes there will be a deal with the owners and she doubts the hotel faces closure.
An executive with the insurance firm's property management unit, Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC, could not be reached. Maragakis said the 300-room hotel is 22 years old. It advertises $89-a-night specials on the Web.
LABOR NOT READY: Labor Ready Midwest Inc. has scrapped plans to move into a couple of storefonts in Uptown at 4830-4 N. Sheridan. The plan was controversial with neighbors, who organized against the company's application for a special use zoning permit.
Uptown residents hired the land use and real estate tax law firm Gordon & Pikarski for the fight, which included a suit challenging the city Zoning Board of Appeals decision to grant the permit. Partner John Pikarski said Labor Ready now has the advised the neighborhood it has no intention to proceed. Company spokeswoman Stacey Burke could not be reached. She told a local paper, the News-Star, that the new office was temporarily scrapped because of the slow economy. If it later wants the location, it probably will need another permit.
Uptown Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) vigorously backed the labor agency, but neighbors didn't like the crowds it would bring in proximity to a YMCA and two elementary schools. Would Shiller back Labor Ready again now that she stuck her neck out for nothing?
CONDO COLLAPSE: During the third quarter, the downtown market recorded only 161 condo sales, the lowest total for any quarter since late 2001, said a report from Appraisal Research Counselors. It said that for the last 10 years, average third quarter sales were 1,313 units. Everything is conspiring against the market, from buyers being unable to get credit or having trouble selling existing homes to a conviction that prices have further to fall.