Sterling Bay’s mixed-use tower gets go-ahead, original McDonald’s site turned over to Des Plaines: Daily digest

A daily round up of Chicago real estate news, deals and more for August 12, 2019

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up Chicago’s biggest real estate news. We update this page at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com

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Sterling Bay moves forward with Michigan Avenue project. The developer recently received the go-ahead for its plan to build a 46-story mixed-use tower at 300 North Michigan Avenue. Sterling Bay, with partners Magellan Development Group and Wanxiang American Real Estate Group, will build the tower, which will include 289 apartments, 280 hotel rooms and ground floor commercial space. [Curbed]

 

Chance The Rapper speaks onstage at WE Day California at The Forum (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

Chance The Rapper speaks onstage at WE Day California at The Forum (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

Chance The Rapper is a Re/Max fan. The hometown rap superstar references the national brokerage chain in a song off his new album, “The Big Day.” On the track, “Zanies and Fools,” Chance — whose mother was a Re/Max agent — mentions meeting his future wife at a Re/Max party thrown by his future mother-in-law, Janice Corley. She owns Re/Max Premier properties in the Gold Coast. [Crain’s]

 

I-55 industrial corridor once again gaining steam. After contending with massive new deliveries, the Interstate 55 industrial corridor is again riding high. Over 2.5 million square feet were absorbed in the southwest suburban corridor, resulting in an 8.3 percent vacancy that is the market’s lowest since 2016. [Rejournals]

 

Jeffrey Epstein and his home at 9 East 71st Street in New York (Credit: Getty Images)

Battle over Jeffrey Epstein’s estate only beginning. The fate of the deceased sexual predator’s many real estate holdings remains up in the air. Facing potential civil trials after his suicide in a jail in New York City over the weekend, Epstein’s estate could lose his 40-room Manhattan mansion, the Caribbean island of Little St. James, a ranch in New Mexico and homes in Florida and Paris. [TRD]

 

VTS is expanding in Canada with a Toronto engineering hub. The firm plans to hire at least 50 staffers for the hub by the end of next year and may expand to Montreal and Vancouver as well, according to Bloomberg. The property tech startup is based in New York and has developed software that allows commercial real estate firms to manage the leasing process from a computer or cell phone. It is now valued at more than $1 billion. [Bloomberg]

 

Tandem Partners debuts interiors at new River West complex. The Chicago-based developer will call its 23-story apartment building Avenir, and is debuting new interior renderings of the neighborhood’s tallest building. The fifth floor will house amenities like a gym and a pool and sun deck, and the top floor will have a co-working lounge with skyline views. Rents start at $1,445 for a studio. [Curbed]

 

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New Jersey investor picks up Oak Brook office building. Fairbridge Properties paid $43 million for the 233,000-square-foot Oak Brook Gateway office building. The eight-story complex is 93 percent leased in a suburban office market that has performed unevenly in recent years.
[GlobeSt]

 

Ulta Beauty and CEO Mary Dillon (Credit: Getty Images and iStock)

Ulta Beauty and CEO Mary Dillon (Credit: Getty Images and iStock)

Ulta Beauty is defying larger retail trends. The Bolingbrook-based beauty retailer has used in-store services and a popular loyalty program to buck the trend of the declining brick-and-mortar retail performance. Revenue from its services were up 8.5 percent last year, and its stock price is up 44 percent this year. [Crain’s]

 

Des Plaines to take ownership of first McDonald’s site. The vacant site that housed Ray Kroc’s first ever McDonald’s restaurant will be turned over to the village, which is considering what to do with it. McDonald’s tore down a replica of the first ever restaurant last year, and the site is considered flood-prone and may not be suitable for development. [Daily Herald]

 

Employees actually like switching offices. A new study shows that workers are not turned off by a move in office space. Instead, 68 percent of those surveyed by Clutch say an office relocation had a positive impact. [Rejournals]

 

GlenStar Properties delivers new O’Hare office building. The developer has completed work on its 150,000-square-foot office building on the Northwest Side The eight-story structure includes includes a 628-space parking garage. [REbusinessonline]

 

Here are the real estate bigwigs who went to Trump’s fundraisers in the Hamptons this weekend. President Trump held two fundraisers on the famed vacation spot this weekend: one at developer Joe Farrell’s home in Bridgehampton and another hosted by Related Companies’ chair Stephen Ross, which had prompted a massive backlash against Equinox and SoulCycle. Guests at the fundraisers from the world of real estate included Neal Sroka, Vornado’s Steve Roth, Richard LeFrak, Cantor Fitzgerald’s Howard Lutnick, Steve Witkoff and Andrea Catsimatidis. [NYP]

 

Lower mortgage rates probably aren’t enough to speed up the slow housing market. The low rates might provide the market with a modest increase, but the main problem is still expensive home prices and the lack of options for starter homes in several markets, according to the Wall Street Journal. Average 30-year mortgage rates fell to 3.6 percent last week, their lowest level since November 2016, and they have been dropping throughout most of the year. [WSJ]

 

FROM THE CITY’S RECORDS:

Optima Partners bought a Lakeview grocery store and parking lot for $12.85M and financed it with a $7.7M loan from PNC bank. Curbed Chicago reported that Optima pitched a 250-unit apartment at the site last month. [Curbed]