Articles About Office

Toxic commercial real estate loans could create losses up to $100 billion for small and mid-size banks by the end of 2010 if the economy worsens.  According to a Wall Street Journal report – which applied the same criteria used by the federal government in its stress tests of 19 big banks — these institutions […]

Bank of America has pulled the plug on Chicago’s high-profile Waterview Tower with its filing of a foreclosure lawsuit against the 90-story condominium and hotel tower overlooking the Chicago River.  The bank has sued to collect $20 million from the developer, an affiliate of Chicago-based Teng & Associates, which stopped construction last year. The building’s […]

Amidst the most dire financial crisis in a generation, Chicago has created a magnificent rejoinder to all the bad news.  The Russian writer Dostoevsky once said that “Beauty will save the world.”  Seeing Renzo Piano’s new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago makes you believe that it just might.  First of all, how […]

$70 trillion dollars.  That’s all the money in the world, or to get technical, the subset of global savings known as fixed-income securities.  And it almost doubled from $36 trillion in just six years.  How did this happen? The Federal Reserve presided over the creation of what we have learned (the hard way) is a […]

Warren Buffett’s loyal followers are wondering what got into the Oracle of Omaha when he told CNBC  that this is “a great time to be in banking”, praised Wells Fargo’s massive earning power, and said that the government doesn’t need to provide capital to or nationalize banks. Although some critics dismissed Buffett’s statements as biased because […]

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have been closely watching the credit crisis evolve, according to a Deloitte LLP report.  The good news is that they haven’t entirely lost their taste for American commercial real estate. Consider that two of 2008’s highest profile transactions were the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s $800 million acquisition of the iconic Chrysler […]

Encouraging data on home and auto sales, homebuilding and consumer spending is seen by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as “tentative signs” that the recession may be moderating.  Still, he cautions that lasting recovery depends on the government’s success in stabilizing the reeling financial markets and unfreezing credit. In remarks to faculty and students at […]

One11 West Illinois Street is on the cover of  the Spring issue of Development magazine, published by the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties. The Development article highlights the building’s unique positioning as Class-A-to-own office space that lets businesses own their space in a building with the quality of a premium-priced skyscraper – but […]

To sweeten the pot after luring brewing giant MillerCoors LLC to the Windy City, the City of Chicago has agreed to create a $6 million tax-increment financing deal for the firm’s new corporate headquarters at 250 South Wacker Drive.  Even with a budget shortfall nudging $500 million, the City is kicking in significant funds to bring […]

Cornerstone’s  impact on Grayslake and Lake County goes far beyond the jobs, residences, shopping and entertainment opportunities it creates.  We specifically designed the project to create positive financial benefits for the schools that will serve the 650-acre mixed-use community. Cornerstone will benefit local school districts’ financial health at a time when the tax revenues that […]