Javors rebounds from LaSalle loss with $13M Nealey Foods deal in Fulton Market

A landmarked Fulton Market industrial building that was set to be redeveloped into an office tower by Shorewood Development has a new owner and a new development plan in place.

Days after surrendering a River North office building at 448 North LaSalle Street to a lender, Midwest Property Group’s Jaime “Jay” Javors is taking the helm at the former industrial property next to the trendy Time Out Market. The site at 900-914 West Fulton Market Street was once set to be redeveloped by Buffalo Grove-based Shorewood. Instead, Javors bought the property from Shorewood for $12.6 million, Cook County records show.

Louis Schriber III’s Shorewood took out an $8.1 million loan from Lakeside Bank for the property in early 2020 and in March that year unveiled plans to build a nine-story, 64,000-square foot office building on the site. The property, which includes a stretch of industrial buildings from 900-914 West Fulton Market Street, was sold to Shorewood by Nealey Foods, a company that was once a fixture in the area’s meatpacking industry whose name still adorns one of the buildings.

As Fulton Market began its transition to an office and retail hotspot, Nealey Foods began selling off properties. Last year, it was reported that the company was in talks to sell a 2.7 acre property on Peoria Street to New York-based Thor Equities for $100 million, though that deal hasn’t yet closed.

It’s not clear what derailed Shorewood’s plans for 900-914 West Fulton Market site but the COVID-19 pandemic likely played a role. Representatives of Shorewood did not respond to requests for comment.

Although Shorewood’s redevelopment didn’t pan out, the firm may have exited the plans without too much financial strain. Midwest Property Group bought the property for well more than Shorewood’s previous debt owed to Lakeside, as Javors signed a $10.6 million mortgage loan from Hinsdale Bank & Trust for the property earlier this month.

Midwest’s plans for the site which include lower level retail spaces and upper level residential units were approved by the city this week. The development group is planning a slightly smaller-scale mixed-use development on the property designed by architecture firm NORR. The plans call for the demolition of the building at 906 West Fulton Market, restoration of the building at 900 West Fulton Market and the preservation of the building facade at 910 West Fulton. 

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The combined structure will reach five stories with three, set-back floors added on top of the existing buildings. The cost of the redevelopment plan is not yet clear.

Javors appears to have lined up the deal for the redevelopment play as he was preparing to give up the 12-story, 175,000-square-foot 448 North LaSalle Street to its lender rather than pay off a $70 million mortgage taken out on the property back in 2019.