In an opportunistic play, a joint venture that includes U.S. Equities Realty LLC is close to a deal to buy the vacant former headquarters of G.D. Searle & Co. in Skokie.
The price for the 350,000-square-foot complex is between $18 million and $19 million, sources said. The high-profile, two-building development is located along the Edens Expressway on Old Orchard Road.
Chicago-based U.S. Equities is partnering with Lowe Enterprises, a Los Angeles-based real estate developer and hotel company, sources said.
The deal replaces one that collapsed earlier this year for reasons that could not be determined. New York-based Pfizer Inc. has closed the complex, which it acquired as part of last year’s purchase of Searle’s parent, Pharmacia Corp.
A Pfizer spokesman said the firm is in “serious discussions” with a buyer, but declined to comment further. Transwestern Commercial Services, which represents Pfizer, also declined to comment.
Mayer lease from Fed? Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw LLP is in negotiations to lease about 70,000 square feet of space in the Federal Reserve Bank Building, 230 S. LaSalle St., sources said.
The firm, currently at 190 S. LaSalle St., later this year is moving its lawyers to the new Hyatt Center, 71 S. Wacker Drive. Accounting and computer operations would be housed at the Fed.
Chicago-based real estate firm J.F. McKinney & Associates Ltd. represents the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, which declined to comment. Clifton to Kahnweiler: Suburban office expert Kevin Clifton has joined Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler Inc. as a principal, overseeing the suburban office leasing group.
The hiring is a big step toward expanding the group from a dozen brokers to about 20 by late next year, said David Kahnweiler, president of the Rosemont-based real estate firm.
To take the new job, Clifton, 46, resigned from CB Richard Ellis Inc., a move that had been expected since CB’s acquisition last year of rival Insignia/ESG Inc.
The Indianapolis native joined Insignia in 2002, after two years with the local office of developer Lincoln Property Co. Before that, he had been with CB for 17 years.
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Allianz lease: Allianz Global Risks is doubling its space, to 37,400 square feet, at 225 W. Washington St., said CB Richard Ellis, which represented the landlord. The industrial insurance unit of the Munich-based financial-services giant also extended its lease from late 2009 until 2015.
Povilaitis leaves Equity Office: In a surprise, Arvid Povilaitis has resigned as senior vice president of Equity Office Properties Trust. He could not be reached for comment, but a company spokeswoman said the resignation was for “personal reasons, to pursue other real estate interests.”
Parking firm sues Warshauer: In published accounts, Paul Warshauer has portrayed himself as an underdog fighting the city bureaucracy in efforts to reopen the shuttered Portage Park Theater on the Northwest Side.
But Standard Parking Corp. alleges the entrepreneur falsely claimed connections with the Chicago-based firm to defraud a theater company into giving him a small lease deposit, according to a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.
The deposit was for space in the historic Uptown Broadway Building, 4703-15 N. Broadway, which Warshauer allegedly did not control. The theater group, Annoyance Productions Inc., also sued him, winning a $4,000 default judgment, court records show.
Warshauer denied improperly taking the deposit, but said he will work things out with the theater group.
Standard alleges that Warshauer is a “distant relative” of the company’s founding family, but has never been affiliated with the firm. Warshauer said he’s a first cousin who worked for the firm earlier in his career. He denies claiming current ties to the firm, adding, “I don’t like Standard Parking.”