Key Take Aways from Chicago’s February Mastermind Group Meeting!
- Patrick Murphey, Zoning Administrator with the City of Chicago provided an in depth and informative look at recent initiatives of the city council for additional dwelling units to add more affordable housing and open up underutilized spaces. He provided a detailed explanation of Conversion Units, existing residential buildings (zoned RS2-RM6.5); 20+ years old and Coach Houses, established new or re-occupied in an accessory structure.
- Wesley Prato with CohnReznick said this is his busiest time of year. He also stated that the Biden Tax Plan is relevant, but, not sure how it will shake out.
- Corey Walz with Walz Capital has been very busy in the Dallas area and he is continuing to grow his relationships there, particularly in North Dallas, which, is proving to be a great learning experience.
- AJ Jacobs with W.E. O’Neil Construction remains optimistic as he is seeing a lot of deals ‘start to get legs’ and developers are looking to get deals done. Outside of Chicago things seem to be recovering a little quicker and the company is looking to expand in Texas, either is Austin or Dallas by 2022.
- Lee Utke with Madison Marquette reported that they have officially launched a new business line within his group focused on purchasing in bulk single tenant retail sites vacant or soon to be vacant. The goal is to acquire anywhere from 150 to 250 sites a year.
- Matt Berry with The John Buck Company said that he would dispute the notion that the Chicago office market is dead. Expecting to announce a single user for somewhere between 75 – 100K SF boutique office building in the west loop. The building does feature some ‘next gen’ amenities, air filters, toe-touch elevators, and some other post-COVID-19 improvements.
- Hart Passman with Elrod Friedman believes that a ‘rumbling’ of development is coming. He also said that many smaller towns are looking for money right now and are taking a deeper look at their own assets, opportunities to work with local government may be out there and their motivation is a little different than a traditional seller.
- Larry Serota stated that Chicago office leasing came to a screeching halt, seeing lots of re-structuring taking place. He has been seeing a rise in interest in flexible office space as tenants may not want or need to sign long lease.
- Peter Eisenberg with Elliss Park Partners believes that there is going to be a lot of opportunity in retail. They own 3 cannabis dispensary properties and are actively looking for more.
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