Bronzeville investors hope to capitalize on megaproject at Michael Reese site

Brokers in Bronzeville smell money.

On the heels of a plan to build a $6 billion, 15 million-square-foot megaproject on the former Michael Reese Hospital site, a group of commercial real estate brokers are looking to cash in on a nearby 6.6-acre site, according to Crain’s.

The 290,000-square-foot site, once the home of the 152,000-square-foot Sykes Center, qualifies as an Opportunity Zone, the federal program that allows owners significant tax breaks, as well as tax-increment financing through the city. That’s a big part of its appeal, especially given the uncertainty of the commercial real estate market in the near- and medium-term.

The brokers who own the site — Jameon Commercial’s Michael Madura, Colliers International’s Steve Disse and Jeff Devine as well as real estate investor Brett Walrod — knocked down the Sykes Center outpatient building in 2018 and are marketing the land as a premium opportunity in an up-and-coming area, according to Crain’s.

With 1.4 million square feet in buildable space on the corner of 26th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, the site also sports unobstructed lake views and is situated near both the McCormick Place convention center and the Michael Reese site, which is earmarked for 4,800 housing units.

There’s no specific market price on the land, which the brokers bought for $12.4 million in 2007. One comparable nearby site went earlier this year for about $200 a foot, though that property had income from a Burger King franchise and didn’t allow for as much buildable square footage.

Greenstone Partners’ Danny Spitz and Greg Dietz are marketing the land for the owners. [Crain’s] — James Kleimann

Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that the square footage of the site totaled 29,000 square feet; it is 290,000.