Every day, The Real Deal rounds up Chicago’s biggest real estate news. We update this page at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com
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Renderings of Tribune Tower
Golub & Co unveils plans for Tribune Tower condos. Units in the tower’s redevelopment will run from $700,000 to $7.6 million, developer Golub & Co. announced today. The 162-unit project has debuted model units, with the first residents set to move in by the end of next year. [Crain’s]
Two hotels to replace shuttered Elk Grove Village motel. Sunrise Retail Development has plans for a $25 million project that will bring a three-story Country Inn & Suites by Radisson and a four-story Tru by Hilton hotel to the site at Oakton Street and Busse Road. Village officials signed off on a redevelopment agreement this week, allowing for the sale of the parcel for about $1 million. [Daily Herald]
Burke’s property tax business again in hot water. Ed Burke, Chicago’s longest serving alderman, successfully saved rental car firms Avis and Budget nearly $2 million in property taxes for its garage at Midway Airport. That’s just one in a line of developments requiring city approval which received Burke’s law firm’s assistance in reducing property tax bills. [Sun-Times]
Petition wants to change Trump Tower Chicago’s address to “Obama Avenue.” A MoveOn campaign is asking city officials to rename a portion of North Wabash Street near Trump Tower to “President Barack Obama Avenue.” There have been similar efforts in New York, and read below to see how that went. [Crain’s]
It looks like the Trump Tower’s address won’t be renamed to Barack H. Obama Avenue, after all. An online petition with 290,000 people wasn’t enough to convince City Council speaker Corey Johnson, who said he was “not confident this is the best way.” [NYT]
A developer’s $1.2 billion bet on a casino went bust. Resorts World Catskills has been in the red every quarter since their opening 18 months ago, and their most recent U.S. Securities and Exchange filing showed a $36 million loss in the second quarter. Kien Huat Realty, which owns most of the casino, said it would team up with Genting Malaysia to buy out stockholders at $9.74 per share — $1.54 more than its current trading price. [NYT]
Related Midwest’s ‘The 78’
Related Midwest leads charge to boost minority contractors. The local developer is leading an industry-wide effort to create a loan fund that will help minority- and women-owned contracting firms take on bigger projects. Big time players including Magellan Development, Sterling Bay and Clayco will join the effort to help boost minority contracting. [Sun-Times]
Can pot shops help an ailing Mag Mile? Marijuana dispensaries are considering opening on some of Chicago’s most prominent retail strips, including North Michigan Avenue. In particular, the former Apple store at 679 North Michigan Avenue is being considered by the dispensary owners. [Tribune]
Fulton Market seeing massive expansion in hotel development. After two new hotels delivered this year in Fulton Market, another seven proposals totaling over 900 keys are planned for the neighborhood. In all, Fulton Market is projected to be home to about 1,500 hotel rooms in the next few years, raising questions about how much supply the market can absorb, and which projects might struggle, if they get off the ground at all. [TRD]
South Shore entertainment complex hits snag. Developer Alisa Starks is looking for financing for her plans to build a 50,000-square-foot entertainment district on the South Side, including a dine-in movie theater, bowling alley and events space. The project has been in the works since 2015, and hit a roadblock last year when the federal government shutdown gummed up the issuing of new market tax credits. [Block Club]
West Loop office activity stays red hot. Here’s some good news for the (many) Fulton Market office developments in the works: over 3.5 million square feet of office space has come to the area in the last five years, and 95 percent of it has been leased. Plus, the larger West Loop just had its best leasing quarter since 2014, just as a massive amount of new office product is set to come online. [Bisnow]
President Trump is interested in buying Greenland. And Mexico will pay for it??? Though the permafrost-covered 836,000-square-mile autonomous Danish island is not currently listed for sale, but he appears undeterred. He’s not the first president to try to buy Greenland: Harry Truman tried to buy the territory for $100 million in 1946, but the Danes said ingen (no). [TRD]
There isn’t an industry-wide standard to prevent wire fraud, but these startups are trying. Wire fraud schemes cost the real estate industry $150 million last year, according to an FBI report. Companies like CertifID use various forms of encryption, identity verification and portals to avoid methods of communication that are vulnerable to fraud. [WSJ]
Keller Williams is being accused of stealing tech. TPI Cloud Hosting alleged in a lawsuit that the brokerage skipped paying the bill for their services, and made off with their company prototype. In addition to $1.8 million in payment, the lawsuit seeks damages and describes Keller Williams’ strategy as “steal or copy what you have.” [Inman]