The seller was a local private investor.

Adam Firsel, Next Realty’s director of acquisitions, represented the Next Realty affiliate in the transaction. Firsel joined Next Realty at the beginning of the year.

Immediately following the acquisition, Next Realty began marketing the 17,000-square-foot site for redevelopment to national tenant prospects, including restaurants, small retailers, coffee shops and banks, as either a single or multi-tenant retail facility. The site could be configured to include a drive thru facility. 

The area of Lincolnwood where the parcel is situated is densely populated with more than 271,000 people in a three-mile radius. More than 26,000 vehicles travel Touhy Avenue per day and another 13,000 vehicles travel Crawford every day at this intersection.

According to Firsel, certain segments of the retail industry, including restaurants, coffee shops and banks, always are looking for new sites in densely-populated, well-traveled locations. He noted that this represents the seventh acquisition completed by Next Realty, which is capitalized by Next Realty Fund VII, in the last 18 months.

Located in close proximity to the Corporate Corridor, Arboretum Landmark will offer 310 residential units with distinct living configurations, a variety of high-end amenities, and access to more than 500 parking spaces for residents and guests to utilize.

Arboretum Landmark will feature condo-style amenities, including an outdoor heated swimming pool, patio area, communal gas grills, outdoor fire pit, fitness center, access to the building’s sunroom and will be a pet-friendly environment. Each unit will feature a “chef’s kitchen,” including stainless steel appliances and granite countertops.

The project will break ground in May and is slated for occupancy beginning September 2013. Opus Development Corporation is the developer and Opus Design Build LLC will serve as the general contractor.

The three-story residential building will feature a masonry façade accented by balconies and walk-out terraces, and residents will share access to a well-designed and expansive garden.  The Lodge of Northbrook will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom units that include contemporary stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, Merillat cabinetry, in-unit washers and dryers and extended ceiling heights. The new 156,434-square-foot development will incorporate below grade car parking for residents.  McShane will also construct shared amenity spaces that can be utilized by the seniors within the complex.  

JSSH Architects Inc. is providing the architectural services for this assignment that is slated for completion in June 2013.

In 13 months, Wirtz Realty transformed the dilapidated land, in part, into the new warehouse, which will have the capacity to hold 2.5 million cases of wine and spirits and includes a 25,000- square-foot temperature-controlled wine storage facility, the largest in the country. The advanced conveyor system sorts and moves up to 10,000 cases per hour to 39 shipping and receiving bays.  Once fully transitioned, the building will serve as the central headquarters for nearly 1,000 Wirtz Beverage Illinois employees and 1,500 premier beverage products. 

Two stories of corporate offices, a full gym with locker rooms for employees and a company-cafeteria, emphasizing healthy fare, also complement the facility. The Alchemy Room, designed by chefs, sommeliers and mixologists, features a commercial kitchen and demonstration bar with high-definition video screens for training, education and beverage development.

A world-class office tower, River Point was designed by architectural firm Pickard Chilton and will be built at 444 W. Lake St. on the western bank of the Chicago River near two rail hubs in the West Loop, overlooking the river toward Lake Michigan. Containing approximately 900,000 square feet of leasable space, the project also calls for construction of a 1.5-acre public park atop the existing rail infrastructure that will connect the tower and its 450-linear feet of newly landscaped walkway to the Chicago Riverwalk. The tower is pre-certified LEED Gold.

According to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, River Point will be the largest real estate project to be launched in the past five years in Chicago, where no other office tower construction projects are currently underway.

“River Point is a vote of confidence for our city, welcome news for the local economy, and a signal that Chicago is leading the nation in job creation and economic development,” Emanuel said. “The investors and developers are starting this project because they see that Chicago is a city on the move, shaping its own future, and attracting the best and brightest.”

“This project not only represents welcome economic news, it also responds to increasing corporate demand for the highest quality real estate,” said Daniel Fournier, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ivanhoé Cambridge. “River Point also offers us the chance to strengthen our strategic partnership with Hines, a flagship player in high-end real estate in the U.S. and around the globe.”

“River Point will drive strong enthusiasm in the next-generation real estate product market and will be a striking addition to Chicago’s much-loved and world-renowned architectural character,” said C. Kevin Shannahan, senior managing director/CEO – Midwest and Southeast regions at Hines. “Ivanhoé Cambridge’s formidable commitment to this development and the city of Chicago today is a beacon for economic recovery.”

The partnership of Hines with Ivanhoé Cambridge has an established track record for successful development in recent years with two other high-profile construction projects: Eighth Avenue Place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and the T1 tower in the La Défense business district of Paris. In addition, Ivanhoé Cambridge, with Hines as its partner developer, recently won a Paris competition among architects, developers and investors for construction of a twin-tower complex in the city’s 13th arrondissement. The project, called “Duo,” was selected over projects from three competing teams and has been declared the winner of the Paris Mayor’s Office Premier Immeuble de Grande Hauteur competition.

“The River Point project is truly exceptional, not only for its prime location and architectural quality, but also because it is taking shape at an auspicious moment, with all signs pointing to a substantial increase in demand for new office properties in downtown Chicago in the years to come,” said Bill Tresham, President, Global Investments, Ivanhoé Cambridge. “This is great news for Ivanhoé Cambridge, for Hines, for the City of Chicago and for the many large-scale corporations seeking prestigious and functional office space.”

The Tamarack Hills Development of Woodbury inched a step closer to recovery as Alerus Financial, represented by Dan Altstatt of CBC Griffin Co., sold the property to Logistics Planning Services of Mendota Heights. This company will now occupy the building.

The building, a Class-A office building, was foreclosed upon two years ago by Alerus Financial, and was one of many properties in the area that came back to the lenders during and after the recession of 2009.

“This was a great deal for both the bank and the buyer,” said Altstatt. “Truly a fair market deal in my opinion considering some of the difficulties we had with this particular asset. The buyer bought at the right time, and the seller met requirements set by the FDIC, so both parties are very pleased with the deal.”

Glenn Davis

Glenn Davis has been named the new president and managing director of Colliers International’s Indiana region.

Davis joined Colliers in December of last year as a senior vice president. He brings more than 14 years experience in the Indianapolis market to his new position.

Before joining Colliers, Davis worked for Duke Realty’s Indiana industrial group as a senior leasing and development representative.

The multi-family market remains the healthiest of all the commercial real estate sectors. And that’s the case in Cincinnati, too.

According to Marcus & Millichap, multi-family vacancy rates should fall to 4.7 percent this year, a dip of 60 basis points. This follows a dip of 140 basis points in 2011. Marcus & Millichap’s researchers point to a drop in demand for single-family homes — not surprising given the continuing fall in housing values — and an uptick in employment for this fall in vacancies.

Marcus predicts, too, that apartment rents will reach new highs in Cincinnati in 2012. According to the company’s figures, asking rents should increase 2 percent in 2012 to $726 a month. Effective rents should jump 2.4 percent to $692 a month.

And if you’re looking for new construction in the city, Marcus & Millichap has additional good news. According to the company, multi-family construction in Cincinnati will reach a nine-year high in 2012 as builders add 1,000 new units to the market. That’s signficantly higher than the 370 new multi-family units that hit Cincinnati last year.

And it’s yet another sign that multi-family, in just about every Midwest market, continues to thrive.

And he doesn’t feel guilty about it.

“Who created the housing bubble? Wall Street and the banks,” Maddux said. “They should do principal reductions. They are the ones who should take a loss. The peopel who made the most money from the housing bubble should lose the most money now that it’s popped. This shouldn’t fall on the average American who was simply following the American dream.”

Maddux has received a lot of press since 2008. He’s the chief executive officer of Carlsbad, Calif.-based YouWalkAway.com, a company that helps guide homeowners through the strategic default process. YouWalkAway.com provides legal advice, tax advice and document-checking services to homeowners who decide to stop making their mortgage payments because they are underwater on their home loans.

The fees that YouWalkAway.com charges vary based on the services that homeowners request, but clients typically pay about $1,000 for the adivce that the company provides.

Business, not surprisingly, has been strong: Maddux says that YouWalkAway.com averages more than 100 new clients every month. And that number should remain high; housing experts are waiting on a new round of housing foreclosures as banks and lenders more aggressively pursue delinquent homeowners.

This does impact commercial real estate professionals. After all, if people are walking away from their homes, the odds are good that they won’t be making many big purchases in the near future. When consumers aren’t active, that doesn’t bode well for the commercial real estate industry.

Making the decision to walk away from a mortgage loan and voluntarily fall into foreclosure isn’t an easy one. But Maddux says that his clients should not be considered unethical for no longer making their payments.

Strategic default, he says, is almost always a wise business decision.

“Whether it’s moral or not is not the issue. It’s whether it’s the smart thing to do,” Maddux said. “We’ve found that 99 percent of the time, walking away is the smart thing to do. There are a lot of people out there who are underwater by 20 percent or more. It’s a bad investment to keep making payments when you’re that far underwater. Even if you’re only 5 percent underwater and you can’t sell your house because of it, you can feel trapped.”

Foreclosure, of course, comes with consequences. They will stay on the credit reports of former homeowners for seven years, though the negative impact of this lowers with each passing year.

Then there’s the community-wide impact. If people begin walking away from their mortgags in droves, that could send the country into more economic problems. About 11 million homeowners owe more on their mortgage loans than what their homes are worth, accordingto CoreLogic. Just think what would happen to the economy if a good percent of these people decided to strategically default on these home loans.

Maddux, though, says that homeowners need to look at their own financial situations. A house is an investment, he says. And if a particular house is a bad investment, it makes sense for its owners to walk away.

“When we first started, people thought I was crazy. ‘Why would peopel pay money to have someome tell them not to make their house payment?’” Maddux said. “This is a unique and scary position to be in. I would equate it to representing yourself in court. It is something you can do on your own. But it’s not advisable that you do. People end up sick over the kind of stress that can come with this. They end up divorced. For a small fee it’s not a bad investment to make sure that you make it through the process OK.”

The Cary Company was represented by Tim Gallagher, SIOR, of Cawley Chicago and the landlord, Cabot Properties, was represented by Dominic Carbonari of JLL.

Clarion Partners and project manager Colliers International has contracted The Missner Group to complete the tenant improvements and office renovations within the distribution/warehouse facility. The project includes a 1,700-square-foot office build-out, ventilation renovations, a new store front entrance and exterior improvements. The entry construction will feature a precast panel with store-front glass that will serve as the main entrance for the building.

Jess Knigge, vice president of construction, is the project executive, Jack Sbertoli is the project manager and Bill Stransky is the superintendent on behalf of The Missner Group. Melissa Powell of Colliers International is overseeing the construction management. Harris Architects is providing architectural services on the project, which is slated for completion in early summer 2012.

According to the data:

• The current annualized rate of growth (1Q2012) came in at 1.11 percent, which is in line with the 1.01 percent forecast. This rate is consistent with the readings during the past several quarters, which have ranged from .87-1.26 percent.
• 1Q2012 growth was within normal range of 1-2 percent per year. The finding continues to be consistent with readings of the overall economy, which has seen GDP growth that is still positive but below long-term averages. Nevertheless, 1Q2012 marks the seventh consecutive quarter of positive growth in industrial demand, following seven prior quarters of deep contractions.
• Strong demand growth isn’t expected until later in 2012, contingent upon the overall economy resuming more normalized growth and other risks, such as the continued issues in Europe.
• Therefore, demand for industrial space is expected grow at an annualized rate of 1.14 percent in 2Q2012, which is at the low end of the normal range. Increasing rates of growth are expected to begin to occur by the second or third quarter of 2012, barring exogenous shocks.

Nickelson Industrial Service Inc., a demolition contractor that specializes in machinery dismantlement, is expanding from its current location in Chicago and purchased the 16,600- square-foot building at 10115 South Torrence Ave. in Chicago. The company chose the location because of the close proximity to the main storage facility and found this site to be excellent for storing  material and equipment. The building is also close to the highway system, has 16-foot ceilings, heavy power, two truck doors and one truck dock. 

Edward Wabick, principal, and Albert Schulman, senior vice president of Paine/Wetzel/TCN Worldwide worked on behalf of the seller and were the sole brokers in the transaction.

Bryan Hartmann

Bryan Hartmann of Omaha’s NAI NP Dodge has been awarded the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation by the CCIM Institute.  The designation was awarded during the Institute’s spring business meetings April 25 in Kansas City, Mo.

Hartmann was among the 141 commercial real estate professionals who earned the designation by passing the institute’s examination, the final element in the designation process.  This new group of CCIM designees hails from 34 states, as well as Canada and Mexico.

“The CCIM designation is no easy feat,” said Jan Kratky, president of NAI NP Dodge. “We’re extremely proud of Bryan and the hard work he put in to achieve this.”

Currently there are only 27 CCIM-designated professionals in Omaha.

Scott Latter

Scott Latter recently joined Chicago’s EnTrust Realty Advisors as a real estate analyst.

Latter provides EnTrust Realty Advisors and its EnTrust Healthcare Properties division with property underwriting; valuations; market analyses; and in-depth research to advance the acquisitions and the dispositions process.

Prior to joining EnTrust, Latter launched a new State Farm Insurance Agency office in Aurora, Ill.  As sales and office manager, Latter established accounting and sales metrics systems to efficiently manage agency activities; developed and implemented marketing strategies to generate sales and relationships; and achieved challenging sales goals.

He also served as an accounting clerk at TTX Company in Chicago, as well as a staff accountant at Singlewire Software in Fitchburg, Wis.

Financing was based on a 3.25 percent/35-year term and a 35-year amortization schedule HUD 232/223 (f) refinance and was arranged for the borrower, Coon Rapids Select Properties, LLC, by Everest Real Estate Advisors through Walker and Dunlop.

Murray is a principal with the brokerage while DeLong is an associate.

“This is an exciting period of growth for Lee & Associates, and tapping an experienced professional such as Erik is a perfect reflection of the times,” said Nathan Anderson, managing principal of Lee Kansas City. “As a recognized expert in the industrial industry with an extensive background, a successful track record and strong client relationships, Erik is a valuable addition to our Kansas City office.”

Specializing in industrial services, Murray began his commercial real estate career with Trammell Crow Company in 2004 and was a leading industrial broker at Colliers Turley Martin Tucker and principal at Point Commercial. He has developed a successful track record in brokerage, having been responsible for more than six million square feet of industrial and investment transactions valued in excess of $250 million.

DeLong, who partnered with Murray on the industrial services team at Point Commercial, is another new addition to the Kansas City office. DeLong primarily manages the day-to-day operations of the team’s sales and leasing clients and coordinates the transaction management process for national corporate services clients.

Cynthia Spriggs

McGrath & Associates, based in St. Louis, recently hired Cynthia Spriggs of Columbia, Ill.,  as controller. Spriggs brings 15 years experience and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Maryville University to her new position.

McGrath & Associates is an employee-owned general contractor and construction management firm that has specialized in commercial, health care, industrial, institutional and pharmaceutical construction projects since 1983.

True Management Group LLC awarded Summit these duties.

The 28-story multi-tenant property includes on-site banking, dining and underground parking. The owners of the building are in the process of changing the name of the building from M&I Plaza to BMO Plaza.

Nicole Langdon has been hired as the on-site property manager for M&I Plaza. Joining her are Audrey Wykes as assistant property manager and Bob Latta as senior engineer.

“We are extremely pleased with the activity in the market so far this year and are gratified that so many outstanding companies have chosen Duke Realty properties,” said Jon Burger, senior vice president of Duke Realty’s Cincinnati operations. “In addition to a strong volume of leasing activity, we were particularly encouraged by the 100 percent lease up of our Centre Pointe Office Park in West Chester and renewed interest in the Mason submarket, where we have several buildings.”

At Duke Realty’s Centre Pointe Office Park, General Electric signed a new 21,926-square-foot lease in Centre Pointe II, which exhausted all available space in existing buildings in the development. However, Duke Realty has two remaining parcels of land in the West Chester submarket, both of which are ready for build-to-suit development. The available land includes a 15-acre parcel in South Pointe at Union Centre along Interstate-75 and an 18-acre site at North Pointe at Union Centre adjacent to GE Aviation along Union Centre Boulevard. Both of these sites can accommodate up to 300,000 square feet of Class-A office buildings.

Duke Realty also signed leases for more than 45,000 square feet in the Mason submarket. At 8650 Governor’s Hill, GE signed a new, 20,047-square-foot lease, while Summit Funding Group signed a new 17,504-square-foot lease at 4680 Governor’s Pointe.

Wayne Hach with Cincinnati Commercial Realtors represented GE, and George Stinson with Sperry Van Ness represented Summit Funding Group in their transactions. Other activity in the Mason submarket included leases with Track One Background Solutions, GP Strategies Corporation and HP Hood, LLC totaling 5,793 square feet at 4770 Governor’s Pointe.