Top executives of some of Chicago’s biggest residential brokerages revealed where they stand on the National Association of Realtors’ controversial Clear Cooperation Policy.
It’s little surprise that Thad Wong, co-CEO of Chicago’s biggest brokerage @properties, criticized the rule that requires listings to be posted on the MLS within a day of being marketed publicly. Its biggest opponent has been Robert Reffkin, CEO of Compass, which bought @properties for $444 million this year.
Meanwhile, Steve Baird, the president of Chicago’s fourth-biggest brokerage Baird & Warner, favors keeping clear cooperation in place.
In the multifamily sector, developers found a way to thaw the previously icy market for Chicago construction loans.
Hymie Mishan’s and Saul Sutton’s Vista Property scored a $173 million financing package from CIBC and PGIM to start building on the 494-unit 370 North Morgan Street, the first in a trio of towers the firm plans in Fulton Market.
And a joint venture of DAC Developments and Melrose Ascension Capital pulled in a $69 million construction loan from Brooklyn-based BridgeCity Capital to kick off a residential tower project at 626 South Wabash Street.
It wouldn’t be 2025 if a week went by without some more commercial real estate distress cropping up.
Fannie Mae initiated foreclosure proceedings against a 24-unit North Side property owned by an entity tied to Michael N. Lerner. The building at 1636 North Bosworth Avenue near the Kennedy Expressway was just in the middle of a boiling dispute with Lerner’s parents, Jamie Lerner and MCZ Development founder Michael J. Lerner; they’ve settled multiple real estate lawsuits with their son in recent weeks.
Condo deconversion specialist Yitzy Klor found a way to save a deal from distress. His Skokie-based firm Strategic Properties of North America got a new pool of investors together to buy a 68-unit Gold Coast building for $21 million from a court-appointed receiver who took possession after lender CoreVest foreclosed on a separate affiliate of Strategic that defaulted on a $26 million loan.