Developed speculatively in 2008, Gateway at The Glen is a 130,000 square foot Class A office building located at the intersection of Patriot Boulevard and Willow Road in Glenview, Illinois.  Mead Johnson Nutrition and Navman Wireless Holdings currently lease and occupy approximately 58 percent of the building.  With its recent acquisition, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and its affiliates will occupy the majority of the vacant space within the building.  Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Opus Development Corporation closed the sale on December 21, 2011.

“It was a pleasure to work with the Northwestern team on the sale transaction,” said John Carlson, real estate director at Opus Development Corporation in a release. “Northwestern Memorial Hospital is an outstanding organization and the community will greatly benefit from their presence within The Glen Town Center.”

USCS built the facility in 1974, with an addition in 1979, and will remain a tenant in 150,000 square feet.  Bridge is already in discussion with users interested in the remaining 162,000 square feet of refrigerated space, which is scarce in and around Chicago.  The building is centrally located in the near southwest submarket with immediate access to Interstate 55, providing direct proximity to the city.

Steve Connolly and Larry Much of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based NAI Hiffman represented USCS in the sale and will serve as Bridge’s exclusive leasing agents for the property.

“We were comfortable with the risk-reward opportunity to gain a 50 percent leased building in a solid submarket with a high-quality tenant,” said Tony Pricco, principal with Bridge.  “The acquisition fits our portfolio and our strategy of pursuing real estate transactions that conventional developers might overlook.”

USCS owns and operates two other facilities it built in Chicago’s southwest suburbs and will continue to manage the refrigeration systems in the Lyons property.

“The Bridge and USCS teams worked diligently together to complete this unconventional sale, and it’s a hopeful sign that the investment market is improving,” said Connolly.

According to Mid-America broker Bill Wright, whose firm was the exclusive representative for the seller, an affiliate of Chicago-based Monroe Investment Partners LLC, this transaction is another example of private investors putting their money into “hands-off” net leased retail properties that require no landlord maintenance. “This deal continues the trend of West Coast private capital seeking investment in solid “core” Midwestern markets,” he says, “and this ground lease is a perfect example of what they’re looking for here.” Terms of the lease include a rent increase of 10 percent every five years, with 18+ years remaining on the initial term.

The Aldo building was constructed in 2011, and is located at 8500 South Holland Road, at the southwest corner of West 85^th Street and South Holland Road in Chicago. The building is situated within the 50-acre Chatham Market retail development, which consists of approximately 360,000 square feet of new and proposed gross leasable retail space anchored by Lowe’s.

According to Mr. Wright, additional anchor draw will be provided by Chicago’s first and only Walmart Supercenter (158,215 square feet), which is currently under construction and expected to open in January 2012. “There is also a freestanding Walmart Express at the north end of the development that opened in July 2011,” he says. “This is the first of four Express concept stores planned to open in Chicago in the next year, and Walmart’s decision to open both a Supercenter and Express store in Chatham Market demonstrates the significant demand for low-cost retailers in this area, which will also benefit Aldi.” The Supercenter is located directly to the north of the Aldi site.

Bill Wright, Tom Fritz and Mark Goldberg comprised the Mid-America team representing the seller.

Micromatic Spring & Stamping purchased the facility at 45 N. Church St. in Addison. The firm was unable to get conventional financing with current lending guidelines. Brown Commercial helped guide the transaction toward a satisfactory conclusion—the buyer put down a large downpayment and the seller was able to hold the note for five years and offer favorable financing terms for the buyer.

“In today’s financing environment, you have to be creative in order to get the deal done,” said Dan Brown, president of Brown Commercial Group in Elk Grove Village, which represented the seller. Mike Antonelli, an associate with Brown Commercial, also assisted with the transaction.

Micromatic is moving out of Franklin Park, which is in Cook County, to Addison, in DuPage County, to lower its tax obligations and expand its space. The company manufactures compression, extension, and torsion springs, along with other products, for a variety of industries. The building previously was a machine shop, so it offers the layout, ceiling heights and mechanicals the tenant desired.

The building includes 6,000 square feet of office space, two loading docks and two drive-in doors, along with parking for 40 vehicles. The ceiling heights range from 13-feet to 20-feet. The property is well located near a large labor pool and good transportation corridors.

Paine Wetzel’s Phil Reiff Jr., an associate, and Phil Reiff Sr., a senior vice president, represented the tenant.

In a separate transaction, Brown sold a 9,730-square-foot building  at 3522 Martens St. in Franklin Park, Ill. to Dual Manufacturing Co., Inc., which is moving its operations from Chicago.

The building sold for approximately 10 percent more than the listing price.

“It just goes to show that when you have a good building with amenities that people want, it will sell,” said Brown. “This is one of the few buildings in the market that is newer and has the ceiling heights and other features today’s companies need.”

Trinity Scurto, a senior associate of Brown Commercial, represented the seller, a private investor. Donald A Sebastian, president of The Sebastian Co. Real Estate in Park Ridge, represented the tenant.

Dual Manufacturing Co. makes sieves, shakers, scales and measuring devices for the testing aggregate, cement, soil, asphalt and petroleum products.

Tammy Saia, Ryan Engle and Sean Sharko, investment specialists in Marcus & Millichap’s Oak Brook Office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a financial institution. The buyer, a private investor was also secured and represented by Tammy Saia.

Through their extensive marketing efforts and broad exposure to the market, Saia, Engle and Sharko were able to generate dozens of property showings resulting in more than eight offers and a closing near list price.

The property was sold for $3,367,500 to an undisclosed buyer. Baasch represented both the bank and buyer in the transaction and believes the real estate freeze is beginning to thaw. “The significant interest in the opportunity from developers and investors reflects the improving market fundamentals in multifamily properties and the Chicago market” said Mr. Baasch in a release. “The city has really done an amazing job redeveloping the South Loop, so it is not surprising that there was this much interest in the property.”

Mr. Baasch has extensive experience working with bank owned properties and specializes in asset disposition solutions for distressed and non-performing assets. 2100-14 S. Indiana represents one of many bank owned transactions he has closed this year.

John DiCola, partner at KTR, stated in a release, “The portfolio is characterized by modern, class A buildings concentrated in highly sought after institutional investment markets where similar premium quality assets rarely trade.  Swiftly completing the transaction in a direct off-market fashion was a big achievement.

“Operationally the portfolio is well balanced.  The in-place cash flow is stable with an average lease term remaining of over six years, while the vacant spaces are highly functional.  Based on the positive leasing activity we have already experienced, we expect to stabilize the remainder of the portfolio ahead of plan.”

The acquisition is the fifth this year for the Inland Western/RioCan joint venture, expanding the venture to more than 3 million square feet of retail assets under management with 13 properties in total, all in Texas. Inland Western’s Texas portfolio includes more than 10 million managed square feet, including over one million square feet in the San Antonio market.

“San Antonio continues to outpace the nation with its growth, and Texas continues to outperform the U.S. average in affordability and consumer spending habits,” said Shane Garrison, chief investment officer of Inland Western, in a release. “Alamo Ranch is located in an excellent trade area. The center has a population of over 180,000 within a five-mile radius, including a large daytime population. We’re pleased to add Alamo Ranch to our venture with RioCan, and we will continue to execute on our strategy of acquiring Class A retail properties in high-growth metro areas.”

Alamo Ranch is located at the convergence of Loop 1604, State Highway 151 and Culebra Road.  The power center has an excellent line-up of national tenants, including Best Buy, OfficeMax, PetSmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Marshalls and Ross Dress for Less. Alamo Ranch is shadow-anchored by Super Target, JC Penney and Lowe’s.

The property is  20,000 square feet and is located at 3319 N Elston Ave. Chicago.  The adjacent parking lot for 90 cars was also included in the transaction. This process took one year from the identifaction of the property, to the closing in October, 2011.

Matt Welke and Doug Fisher of Essex were the brokers in the transaction.  The price was approximately $2,250,000.