Articles About Development

Although Chicago’s 2016 Olympic dreams were shattered on October 2, the experience should be a learning experience about shaping the city’s future. According to Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic, “It’s all about whether Chicago can transform its grand defeat on the international stage into a back-to-basics victory on the home front, […]

New accounting standards calling for property to be marked to market,  and changes in lease accounting rules will strongly impact balance sheets, income statements and the general financial outlook of American companies. Unfortunately, many corporations are not ready to deal with the changes, according to a new report from CB Richard Ellis.  The mark-to-market requirement […]

The recession has thwarted real estate billionaire Sam Zell’s plans to raze the art deco, 80-year-old, 26-story 2 North Riverside Plaza building that housed the Chicago Daily News until 1960 and replace it with an office tower.  Instead, Zell’s Equity Group Investments is beginning a multi-million dollar renovation of the building, which the advocacy group […]

Architecture 2030 is a non-profit, non-partisan, independent organization established in response to the global-warming crisis.  Its core mission is to transform the global building sector from a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to part of the solution to the global-warming crisis.  The organization seeks to achieve a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions […]

So Chicago was eliminated in the first round of International Olympic Committee voting as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, a source of great surprise to many, particularly in light of Barack Obama making the final pitch personally. Still, one thing bears repeating:  no city hosting the games has ever made money from […]

The Treasury Department has issued new tax rules that make it easier for commercial real estate owners to restructure loans on distressed properties that were package by Wall Street and sold as CMBS.  The real estate industry, which lobbied hard for the changed rules, were generally happy but wary that it could open a can […]

After investing $16 billion in wind turbines, the United States has overtaken Germany as the world’s largest wind-power generator.  Wind power accounted for 42 percent of new generating capacity last year, an increase from just two percent four years ago. The American heartland’s sparsely populated states — from Texas to the Dakotas — are the […]

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has started selling insurance coverage on foreclosed homes occupied by distressed borrowers with the goal of making money from banks hurt by the mortgage market collapse.  These policies are riskier than usual home coverage because the properties may be neglected or vandalized. “It’s part of the standard practice of Berkshire, which […]

Downtown Chicago apartment buildings – especially Class A properties – are seeing a resurgence in occupancy and rental rates as residents apprehensive about the condominium market choose to rent rather than buy.  The average effective rent of downtown apartment buildings climbed to $2.17 PSF in the second quarter, a 2.4 percent increase over the first […]

Container trade is entering rough waters, despite the strength of global supply chains and China’s status as the world’s factory.  According to AXS Alphaliner, a container shipping information service, 15 percent of shipping capacity will be idle by October — thanks primarily to the recession. Shipping companies that link Asian workshops with American retailers are […]