Ryan Companies US Inc. has completed the construction of Zurich Meadows, a new 95-unit, three-story, age-restricted residential community in Lake Zurich. The developer of Zurich Meadows is Chicago-based Carefree Development.

Zurich Meadows cost approximately $15 million to construct. It is located on a 2.75-acre site at 250 Mohawk Trail, near the intersection of Illinois Route 22 and South Old Rand Road.

Ryan and the project team overcame significant weather challenges throughout the construction process to deliver the project on time, accommodating Carefree Development’s timeline that called for a phased move-in schedule beginning in January 2012.

Carefree Development and its various partners designed Zurich Meadows to provide a lifestyle alternative for seniors. The project features 56 one-bedroom/one-bathroom and 39 two-bedroom/one-bathroom units with varying floor plans. Additionally, it offers both indoor (below-grade) and outdoor parking spaces for guests.

Zurich Meadows opened in mid January and now has 26 residents, with another 26 expected to move in by the end of April. The complex is expected to be fully occupied by mid-year.

Generous amounts of common area space have been incorporated into the development, including a two-story entryway that opens into a common area. There also are lounges, a library, a game room, a fitness center, recreation space and a dining room.

All residences include wall-to-wall carpeting, mini blinds, color-coordinated appliances, individually controlled heating and air conditioning and security, among other features.

The building exterior, intended to portray a residential setting, features a façade comprised of a mix of brick, stone and siding and a gabled roof. Interior details include drywall, painted finishes, wood trim and base, and carpeting in the common areas.

Ryan’s project leadership includes Jim Herbst, division manager; Brian Kinney, senior project manager; and Ryan Ritchie, project manager. In addition to Ryan, other members of the project team include Legat Architects, architect; C.M. Lavoie & Associates, civil engineer; Larson Engineering, structural engineer; and Amsco Engineering Inc., mechanical/electrical/plumbing engineer.

Ryan is serving or has served as developer, owner, and/or general contractor on numerous multi-family housing projects primarily in the Midwest. These projects account for more than 2,600 units that have been placed into service or are under construction. Included in that figure are approximately 1,000 units in market-rate and affordable senior housing projects.

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Gooder-Henrichsen Co. has purchased a 14,000-square-foot manufacturing building located at 2910 State St. in Chicago Heights.  Scott Anderson, vice president, and Nick Eboli, senior associate, of Lee & Associates of Illinois LLC represented building ownership, Tomahawk LLC, in the transaction.

In addition, H.D. Golf Ventures LLC has purchased 10.43 acres of industrial land located at 510 Tyler Road in St. Charles.  Terrence O’Hara, senior vice president, and Scott Anderson, vice president, of Lee & Associates of Illinois LLC represented the seller, First American Bank, in the transaction.

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Joined by city dignitaries, partner organizations and employees, officials at Testa Produce on Feb. 22 put the crowning touch on the company’s new sustainable distribution center – a special plaque presented by the U.S. Green Building Council recognizing Testa’s recent LEED platinum certification. Testa Produce is the first food distribution company in the nation to gain LEED platinum certification, the highest level available.

“We’ve received a lot of awards during our more than 100 years in business, but this LEED Platinum plaque and the certification behind it are among our proudest accomplishments,” said Peter Testa, president of Testa Produce. “Along with our partners in constructing this unique facility, we’ve raised the bar and we hope others will follow our lead toward more sustainable, environmentally friendly ways of doing business. This plaque is a testament to the commitment on the part of everyone involved in this project to get it right, to cut no corners and to insist on innovation every step of the way. We hang it very proudly.”

In addition to Peter Testa, the plaque unveiling ceremony featured Doug Widener, executive director of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Illinois Chapter, Andrew Mooney, commissioner of housing and economic Development, and Wendy Berger Shapiro of WBS Equities, Testa’s project consultant. Additional Chicago city officials in attendance included Chief Sustainability Officer Karen Weigert and Alderman James Balcer. Representatives from Summit Design + Build, the construction management firm for the Testa Produce project, architectural partner Epstein, and Robert Ebl, the landscape contractor that designed the facility’s barrel-shaped, partially vegetated roof, attended as well.

Located at 4555 S. Racine Ave. in the Chicago Stockyards Industrial Park, the new Testa Produce distribution center opened in May of 2011.

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Kansas City’s Block Real Estate Services recently helped Dairy Farmers of America lease 4,800 square feet of industrial space in Kansas City, Mo.

Michael Block and Kenneth Block of Block Real Estate Services handled this transaction.

The company also recently assisted Ameriprise Holdings lease 17,748 square feet of office space in Overland Park, Kansas.

Josh Gabriel, Gene Elsas and Kenneth Block of Block Real Estate Services, in cooperation with Bob Fagan of CBRE, handled this transaction.

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An investment group, controlled by Clayco and Lincolnshire-based Venture One Real Estate LLC, recently acquired from Citizens First National Bank the remaining 350 acres of industrial land at Park 88, the largest business park within the I-39 Logistics Corridor.  The land acquisition was financed in part by First Midwest Bank.

“This is the largest sale of industrial land in the Midwest since 2007,” said George Cutro, vice president of market research for the Rosemont office of Colliers International.

“Since the 565-acre Park 88 came on line in 2003, both Clayco and Venture One have been on the development/design-build/marketing team,” said Mark B. Goode, SIOR, principal of Venture One. “Since then, we have been involved with three major projects totaling 2,560,400 square feet including Minneapolis-based Target Corp.’s 1.5 million-square-foot Chicago Distribution Center in 2005 and two facilities for St. Paul-Minn. based 3M Corp. – a 410,400-square-foot distribution center in 2007 and a 650,000-square-foot regional distribution center in 2011.”

The remaining 350 acres at Park 88 include five pad-ready sites that can accommodate buildings of 162,000 square feet, 171,000 square feet, 418,500 square feet, 570,000 square feet, 587,100 square feet and one shovel-ready site for a 1.7 million-square-foot cross-dock distribution facility.  Some sites are divisible while others offer the opportunity for contiguous future expansion. When the entire 565-acre park is built out, it will support between 6 million and 7 million square feet of distribution, warehouse, manufacturing, assembly, office and service/retail space. 

According to Roy L. Splansky, SIOR, principal of Venture One, the primary reason for Park 88’s success is the teamwork of all stakeholders including the City of DeKalb, DeKalb County and DeKalb-based Milner & Associates Inc. 

“It was only with the fast-track cooperation of all team members that we were able to deliver 3M’s 410,000-square-foot build-to-suit in less than six months and its 650,000-square-foot facility in nine months.”     

Park 88 is located in the heart of the I-39 Logistics Corridor, 20 miles west of Aurora at the four-way interchange of I-88/Peace Road. It is 10 minutes east of I-39, which provides access to virtually all major interstate highways in Illinois (I-88, I-55, I-74, I-57, I-90, I-80 and I-94) and to all major Midwest distribution hubs in Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Detroit and the Ohio Valley.  The site is bounded by Fairview Drive on the south, Peace Road on the east and the Union Pacific Railroad on the west.

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Cassidy Turley recently closed an office lease of 30,360 square feet in Columbus, Ohio.

Matt Murtha and Randy Stephens of Cassidy Turley helped close the transaction. McDonalds Corporation will now occupy the space in the Corporate Exchance II business park. The landlord in this deal is AEW Capital Management.

Stephens also recently negotiated a land sale of 7.13 acres in Grove City, Ohio. Juanita Corps sold the land to OhioHealth.

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HFF recently secured financing for 1201 Indiana Townhouses & Apartments, a 253-unit, 667-bed, student-oriented urban apartment community near the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in downtown Indianapolis.

HFF worked on behalf of the borrower, a joint venture between Trinitas Ventures and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, to arrange permanent financing to replace the borrower’s construction bank loan.  The financing was secured through M&T Realty Capital Corporation as a Fannie Mae execution.  1201 Indiana represents the third financing that HFF and M&T have secured for Trinitas and Harrison Street joint venture-owned projects.

Completed in 2011, 1201 Indiana serves the more than 30,000 students of IUPUI. The property is a four-story, mid-rise building with one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom luxury furnished units averaging 1,160 square feet each.  Community amenities include an oversized pool and sundeck, clubhouse, 24-hour fitness center, tanning beds, security and shuttle service access to and from IUPUI.

Jon Everson led the HFF team representing the borrower.

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Opus Development Corporation recently sold a parcel of land in Shakopee, Minn., to Seattle-based SanMar® Corporation for an undisclosed sum.

One of the nation’s largest imprintable-clothing suppliers, SanMar has plans to build a 580,000-square-foot distribution center on the 45-acre site.

“We are extremely pleased SanMar selected this site for its new facility,” said Tony Phelps, senior director of development for Opus Development Corporation. “It is exciting to help growing companies find the perfect location to meet their particular needs.”

Phelps represented the seller and Cassidy Turley represented the buyer in this transaction.

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The broker did not want me to use her name. But I can say that she works in the south suburbs of Chicago for a big-name real estate company. And when I spoke to her by phone last week, she was far from optimistic about the state of the commercial real estate industry.

She was downright gloomy on the topic, in fact.

“I have to work five times harder than before to do the same amount of business,” she told me.

At the same time, she pointed at banks as making her life — and the life of those who want to actually build things — harder: “I wish we could connect to a bank that would lend us money,” she said.

It was one of those phone calls that makes you pause. For months now, we’ve been running reseach suggesting that the commercial real estate market is actually getting better in most of the Midwest markets that we cover. As an example, last week the National Association of Realtors released its quarterly commercial real estate forecast. And according to it, all of the major commercial real estate sectors are seeing improved fundamentals.

I don’t doubt this, just as I didn’t doubt the other reports we’ve seen that state the same basic premise. Things are getting better; the statistics undeniably bear this out.

It’s just that it doesn’t feel that much better yet out on the street where commercial real estate brokers are, as that one broker told me, working themselves to exhaustion just to support themselves and their families.

The reasons for the unsettling feeling in the real world — the one that exists outside the reports and official statistics — of commercial real estate are obvious, and have been cited to death during the recession and its slow recovery: too many housing foreclosures, high unemployment, too many underwater homeowners.

When will all this change? When will brokers feel confident again that their industry truly is returning to health?

That’s the big question. Unfortunately, it looks like that Chicago-area broker’s life isn’t about to get easier any time soon.

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Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services recently sent a bit of good news for retail landlords, at least those in the Columbus, Ohio, region.

According to Marcus & Millichap, the retail vacancy rate in this Ohio city should fall to a five-year low in 2012.

Of course, the news wasn’t all great. While retail landlords can expect to receive higher rents in 2012, the increase will be minimal when compared to last year.

Here are the important numbers: Vacancy in the Columbus retail sector is expected to drop 40 basis points this year to 10.2 percent, the lowest this number has been since 2007. The reasons are the common ones: There has been a limited supply of new retail and a rise in leasing activity.

Asking rents are expected to jump 0.8 percent this year to $12.22 a square foot, while effective rents should rise 1 percent to $10.31 a square foot.

Again, those rent increases aren’t big ones. But they do represent, at the very least, a positive trend.

In fact, I’m enjoying this latest round of commercial real estate reports from Marcus & Millichap. Most of them today bring evidence that the commercial real estate market across the Midwest is in recovery mode. This recovery isn’t happening fast enough for most of us, but it is happening, nonetheless.

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