Cook County assessor hits commercial landlords in Northern suburbs, another beefy downtown office sale: Daily digest

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Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners is under contract to buy a 40-story office building at 190 S. LaSalle for about $230 million. This purchase would be the second-largest downtown office deal this year, following San Francisco-based Spear Street Capital’s recently deal at 500 W. Monroe, for which it will pay more than $400 million. Beacon has purchased five other large downtown office buildings in the past five years. [Crain’s]

Groundbreaking is set to begin next week on a 421-unit condo tower known as 1000M near the south end of the Historic Michigan Boulevard District. Once constructed, the tower would have the largest number of units in any condo building erected in Chicago since the recession. It would join the Vista, NEMA and other major residential projects that have reshaped the skyline in the post-recession building boom. It’s being developed by Time Equities, JK Equities and Oak Capitals. [Chicago Tribune]

Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s revised ordinance establishing zoning ground rules for the sale of recreational marijuana as of Jan. 1, despite an effort from the 20-member Black Caucus to delay it by six months. Caucus members threatened to hold up the ordinance due to concerns over a lack of equity and African American representation in the 11 dispensaries set to begin selling legal pot at the beginning of 2020. [Sun-Times]

Many landlords are bracing themselves for big tax hikes after Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi placed much higher values on office, apartment and other commercial properties in his recently-completed reassessment process for the county’s northern suburbs. A Crain’s analysis of data from the assessor’s office found a 74.4 percent increase in the total assessed value of all commercial and industrial real estate in north suburban Cook from 2018. Kaegi claims his predecessor Joseph Berrios underassessed commercial properties in Cook County by using excessively high cap rates. [Crain’s]

Forbes Travel Guide included the Peninsula Chicago’s Z Bar on its inaugural World’s Best Hotel Bars list released Tuesday. The list features 44 bars from 13 countries, including 11 in the U.S. The sixth-floor lounge, which opened in summer 2018, was the only Midwest hotel bar to make the cut. [Tribune]

Gov. J.B. Pritzker

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his wife reported $5.55 million taxable income last year and paid about $2.26 million in state and federal taxes, according to returns released Tuesday. The family reported $34.4 million — about $28.9 million more than in 2018 — and paid $15.6 million in taxes in 2017. Pritzker, a Hilton hotel heir, placed his investments into a “blind trust” before he took office in January. [Sun-Times]

The Committee on Zoning unanimously approved developer Sterling Bay’s plans for an 18-story office tower and an 11-story office building in Fulton Market on Tuesday. City officials say the developer has committed to hiring minority contracting firms as part of the project, charging affordable rents on a certain amount of square footage in the building and paying $750,000 towards a future Metra safety signal improvement project. If the City Council signs off on the buildings, they will be Sterling Bay’s fourth and fifth office towers in the West Loop in just under two years. [Block Club/Daily Line]

Alderman Jason Ervin

The City Council’s Black Caucus plans to introduce an ordinance Wednesday that would halt the planned sale of citywide recreational marijuana sales until July 1 due to concerns that people of color won’t be among business owners allowed to sell pot when it’s legalized Jan. 1. Caucus chairman Ald. Jason Ervin argued that there’s no participation from African Americans in the 11 existing dispensaries set to begin selling legal marijuana at the beginning of 2020. He hopes the delay will allow officials to find more equitable solutions. [Sun-Times]

A new 13-story office building in the West Loop received unanimous approval Tuesday from the Committee on Zoning, bringing Crayton Advisors one step closer to expanding their collection of office buildings in the neighborhood. The company operates four other nearby office buildings. Construction on the new building could begin in March if the project wins approval from City Council. [Block Club/Daily Line]

Fair housing advocates in the Chicago area oppose a proposed plan by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Trump administration to do away with an Obama-era rule that codified disparate impact when dealing with housing discrimination cases. The agency says disparate impact is nebulous, while advocates say it’s hard to locally challenge segregation without disparate impact. [WBEZ]

Lathrop Homes just completed the first phase of its four-phase development project to transform the North Side’s largest public housing complex into a mixed-income community. The first phase, which began two years ago, involved 414 new and rehabbed apartments, a new riverwalk, green space and a new coffee shop to the 32-acre campus in Logan Square. The next phase will focus on the campus’ south end and is expected to be completed sometime next year. [Block Club]