Movers: CBRE replaces Transwestern at Wacker Drive tower & more

A Wacker Drive skyscraper’s landlord that paid off a $150 million mortgage last year has swapped out its office leasing agent after losing some big tenants.

Plus, residential brokerage Kale Realty picked up a new managing broker, the Chicagoland Apartment Association has a new president and Sterling Bay made two promotions.

Here are some more details on the changeup at 77 West Wacker and other Chicago real estate career moves.

➤ Transwestern has been replaced by CBRE to handle office leasing at 77 West Wacker Drive, a 51-story, 959,000-square-foot tower owned by the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.

The new leasing team for the building includes CBRE’s Mike Kazmierczak, according to people familiar with the change.

CBRE declined to comment and Transwestern didn’t return a request for comment.

The Ohio teachers fund handed CBRE the leasing assignment after a string of tenant losses last year. The landlord decided to hang onto the property and try to refill it with new tenants when it paid down a $150 million mortgage loan from Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance that came due last year.

The landlord paid the debt out of pocket, without burdening the property with a new mortgage, Cook County records show.

It was 62 percent leased as of August, after law firms Jones Day and Morgan Lewis & Bockius left for the office tower at 110 North Wacker Drive; the law firm Greenberg Traurig also plotted a 2025 exit for Sterling Bay’s newly built tower at 360 North Green Street in Fulton Market, which would bring the tower to more than half-empty.

➤ Risa Weiss-Kallis has jumped to Chicago-based Kale Realty after a run with Coldwell Banker Realty as vice president of agent development. Weiss-Kallis is Kale’s new managing broker, Agent Magazine reported.

She will work with 700 agents on building their business in her new position, providing transaction support and coaching.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Risa,” Kale owner Nick Patterson said in a statement. “Anyone who meets her will attest to her boundless energy and optimism. She is truly passionate about helping agents succeed and we are happy to welcome her to our growing organization.”

➤ Gina Harmon-Fortune is the Chicagoland Apartment Association’s next president.

The trade association that represents thousands of multifamily landlords in the Chicago area made Harmon-Fortune its board president for 2024. Her full-time position is with the Chicago-based developer Habitat Co., where she manages the finances and operations for the firm’s market-rate housing portfolio across four states.

She’s been on the association’s board of directors since 2017.

➤ Attorney Cara M. Houck is helping to beef up law firm Holland & Knight’s commercial real estate capital markets practice.

The firm’s Chicago office added Houck, who specializes in foreclosure workouts, as a partner, it announced. Her move comes after she spent 16 years with the firm Miller Canfield, according to her LinkedIn profile.

“Cara’s extensive experience in handling real estate litigation will greatly expand our capabilities in Illinois and across the Midwest,” Holland & Knight’s real estate section leader Joe Guay said in a statement. “She has worked with many of our attorneys over the course of her career and is a team player, which will make her an excellent cultural fit for the firm.

➤ Joseph Lauricella‎ and Austin Lusson are moving up at Sterling Bay.

Lauricella was promoted to the Chicago-based developer’s chief information technology officer after serving the past eight years as its director of information technology.

And Lusson is now Sterling Bay’s director of leasing, after moving up from the title vice president of leasing that he held for the past four years. Lusson has worked his way up in the firm after joining it in 2014 as a property administrator.

➤ Tony Hardy has a new role as a regional ambassador for Keller Williams’ multifamily brokerage business.

Hardy is now working to boost the deal flow for 2,000 commercial real estate agents working under the Keller Williams and KW Commercial banners, with a focus on connecting investors from across the globe to deals in the Midwest.

Hardy has been with Keller since 2020, when he came onto the Keller Williams Commercial team at Keller Williams ONEChicago following eight years with Marcus & Millichap.

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