These Chicago real estate companies got the most PPP money

More than 130 received funding in early days of pandemic

From left: Baird & Warner's Stephen Baird, ShowingTime's Michael Lane, and The Inland Real Estate Group's Daniel Goodwin (Getty Images, Baird & Warner, The Inland Real Estate Group, ShowingTime)
From left: ShowingTime's Michael Lane, Baird & Warner's Stephen Baird, and The Inland Real Estate Group's Daniel Goodwin (Getty Images, Baird & Warner, The Inland Real Estate Group, ShowingTime)

Chicagoland real estate companies landed almost $127 million in federal pandemic relief loans.

Industry entities in the metro area–including brokerages, developers and financial organizations–reeled in 136 loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to data from the U.S. Small Business Administration available at federalpay.org.

The loan amounts ranged from more than $6 million to just under $300,000. The average loan amount was about $933,000, and the average number of jobs covered was 70.

Topping the list was Oak Brook’s Inland Real Estate Group, which took in just over $11 million in loans across four of its companies. Inland Investment Real Estate Service got the largest individual loan, which was $6.2 million and covered 456 jobs. Other Inland member companies took $2.8 million, $1.2 million and $860,000 loans.

Chicago’s Baird & Warner Real Estate was next, receiving $5.8 million to cover 413 jobs. Real estate data and management firm Showingtime.com, also based in Chicago, got $4.9 million. Showingtime had the most jobs covered by the loan – 481.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Disaster restoration services firm DSI Holdings Corporation and mortgage company Neighborhood Loans, both in Downers Grove, received $4.8 million apiece. Overall, 28 companies received loans larger than $1 million.

To be sure, funding for Chicago real estate companies was a drop in the bucket in terms of PPP loans issued in the state. A total of 621,411 Illinois businesses received $37.3 billion in loans, with the average loan being $60,072.

Just a few real estate companies outside of the Chicago area received PPP funding, and the types of businesses that received the most loans in Illinois were beauty salons, barber shops, other personal services, trucking and taxi services.

Nationally, real estate agents landed $3.9 billion across more than 300,000 pandemic relief loans, according to a June report. As far as forgiveness goes, real estate agents fare similarly to other U.S. industries, with about $3.1 billion in funds forgiven – 83 percent of the loans and 84 percent of the total dollar amount.

Read more