Hart Passman, Elrod Friedman LLP: Chicago elections coming up in February 2023. There are a handful of mayoral candidates in the race – none that are standouts to challenge Mayor Lightfoot, currently. The campaign dialogue is heavy on crime. There has not been any focus on the real estate and development environment in Chicago. Mayor Lightfoot’s Southwest development initiative may become a point of focus in the election.
Hunter Cannon, Colliers International: Been busy lately, however, there are signs that the financial crunch is moving into the retail market – sales and leasing. The central business district is still struggling. Activity is mostly in the suburbs. Businesses impacted by covid (large sit-down restaurants) are still struggling. The shift to hybrid work is a major factor in the movement in the burbs. Small businesses are impacted the most.
Ben LaPointe, ECS Midwest: Demand is high right now for environmental studies, specifically on redevelopment of existing properties. There was a large contingency in the environmental industry that retired pre-covid and during covid. The industry is struggling to keep up with the increased workload while short staffed. The market is not in line with inflation, making it even more challenging. Staffing issues impact turnover time, which impacts funding timelines on projects.
Matt Berry, The John Buck Company: Outside of luxury stable assets, most of their current pipeline is outside of Chicago. Capital appetite is not there for Chicago. Although, Chicago is still a good option for investment in the grand scheme. Seeing deals fall apart and requests for concessions because of the debt market. Different set of tensions creating same level of investment concerns as existed in 2008. Residential leases have increased. Seeing a shift back to the office – closer to 50-60% utilization.
Joe Calvanico, J2C Valuation: Working with attorneys on property tax valuation. City is going through their appeal cycle. The city is behind in the process. Therefore, there may be two tax bills near the same time. Tip – there is still time to issue an appeal. Anticipates the appeal process will not wrap up until the fall. Applies to Cook County only.
Daniel Brennan, Laurie & Brennan: Works with developers. Currently a large portion of their work is outside Chicago, in Miami, Texas, Nashville, and Denver. The supply chain disruption and inflation are causing projects to be refinanced/reevaluated. Contracts originally written with fixed prices are devastating to construction companies as wait time and costs increase. In some cases, the company may elect to walk away from a project vs. completing. Large contractors can navigate the supply issues. Smaller companies are at a disadvantage.
Matt Andelman, ABC FinTech: Asset Backed Crypto. Selling tokens to investors to have a piece of the commercial real estate portfolio. Raising money in token sales for real estate and in working capital. Feels well-positioned to scale. Recently held a crowd-funding cycle. Has scaled outside of Chicago. Working with a strategic partner to offer a hybrid of token and traditional capital deals. Idea to democratize commercial real estate investment. Tokens are treated as security. Anticipates a transition by 2023. What is the advantage? Phase 2 and phase 3 will allow option to select specific investment/property vs. portfolio of properties.
Casey Smagala, Chicago Cityscape: Real estate Chicago information platform. Chicago specific property data, intelligence, assets, zoning, etc. Seeing a lot of investment in South/Southwest development. Growth in areas of Chicago that have been typically overlooks.
Austin Wayne, Old Republic Title: Austin focuses on business development. Has not seen a slowdown. Multi-family and industrial is the bread-n-butter right now. Seeing movement away from Houston and shifting towards Austin. Flood concerns in Houston. Florida still highly active.
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