Najem, Latsko Land Pizza Lobo for Fulton Market Retail Lease

Alex Najem and Fred Latsko are on a roll.

The respective CEOs of Fulton Street Cos. and Latsko Interests, respectively, lined up another retail lease, this one in Fulton Market.

Heisler Hospitality signed a 10,000-square-foot, full building lease for 165 North Morgan Street. The company plans to open the third Pizza Lobo location in the space next summer, with the other two also in Chicago, in the Logan Square and Andersonville areas.

The landlords intentionally kept properties vacant as they waited for foot traffic to resurge from the pandemic as more companies returned to their nearby offices, Najem said. The timeline allowed the developer to get higher rents from tenants. Najem estimated that net leases in the Fulton Market district are costing between $75 to $90 per square foot in rent, including net costs to the tenant.

“We’ve been able to lease about 90 percent of our portfolio pretty quickly and at high rents,” Najem said.

The property is one of few that offer both single tenancy and a 2,500-square-foot outdoor space. Fulton Street Cos. bought the property in 2021. It had previously been a corporate office for Tenzing Wine & Spirits.

Heisler has doubled down in Fulton Market and the West Loop. The hospitality company has one other restaurant in Fulton Market, Estereo FM, and two in the West Loop.

Najem’s firm Fulton Street Cos. has been busy in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Fulton Street Cos. scratched plans for a new West Loop condo project, insteading planning to build a two-story, 40,000-square-foot “modern social bathhouse” at 1010 West Madison Street.

And in late September, the company announced it had secured financing for its $300 million development at 919 West Fulton Street.

The project is Chicago’s first major new office development to get underway in more than a year, and is being financed by Little Rock, Arkansas-based Bank OZK and Toronto-based Manulife. The loan amount is more than $200 million, and Manulife provided $120 million, according to sources close to the deal.

Latsko, who owns a handful of Gold Coast properties that hold high-end retail tenants, has been making new deals, too.

Earlier this month, Latsko hired a team of JLL brokers to market the Guinness Open Gate Brewery at 901 West Kinzie Street, an asset that may fetch more than $20 million after it was listed just a few weeks after the West Loop destination opened.

In September, Latsko also secured a new $34 million loan from Chicago-based JDI Realty with his Gold Coast retail portfolio serving as collateral, according to Cook County records. Latsko previously had a $43.6 million loan attached to the several properties in the city’s luxury shopping district, from Loancore Capital Credit REIT.

The loan is secured by the real estate at 66 East Walton, 900 North Rush, 41 East Oak and 23 West Maple streets. All the properties are high-end retail spaces occupied by jewelers, fashion houses and other shopping-focused tenants.