California specialty grocer Trader Joe’s Co. is targeting the River North neighborhood for the next step in its expansion into the Chicago market.
Trader Joe’s is close to leasing a portion of the long-vacant Sports Authority space, 50 E. Ontario St., sources said. The Monrovia, Calif.-chain would take between 10,000 and 15,000 square feet of first-floor space, with parking on the second floor.
“We would love to be in that area, but I don’t know of anything that’s imminent,” a spokeswoman said.
Mid-America Real Estate Corp. handles leasing for the two-level, 44,000-square-foot space, which is controlled by a partnership that includes former principals in real estate firm Hiffman Shaffer Associates.
545 N. Michigan sold: California real estate executive Daniel Blatteis and an investor have an agreement to buy 545 N. Michigan Ave., sources said. The 17,600-square-foot building includes about 3,500 square feet of street-level space formerly occupied by retailer Timberland Co.
The price is less than $10 million, sources said. Blatteis, co-chairman of Blatteis Realty Co.’s Los Angeles office, could not be reached for comment. Chicago-based Transwestern Investment Co. owns the building.
Johnson and Bell move likely: Chicago litigation firm Johnson and Bell Ltd. is negotiating a lease for as much as 80,000 square feet of space at 33 W. Monroe St., sources said, making it the latest tenant to move from 55 E. Monroe St.
Veteran trial lawyer William V. Johnson, president of the 100-lawyer firm, declined to comment on the negotiations. Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. is advising the law firm, which has steadily expanded its practice since its founding in 1975.
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Meanwhile, law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP and beer and liquor distributor Barton Inc. are also contemplating moves from 55 E. Monroe.
Equinox Fitness opens center: New York’s Equinox Fitness Clubs is opening a 33,720-square-foot center at 200 W. Monroe St., said Howard Meyer, vice president with John Buck Co., which co-owns the downtown office tower in a venture with San Francisco-based McMorgan & Co.
The 16-year lease with Equinox Holdings Inc. includes nearly 5,700 square feet on the first floor, with the rest on the second floor. The health club is a key piece in a repositioning of the 625,000-square-foot building. Separately, the Buck-McMorgan venture has an agreement in principle to sell a condominium interest of about 95,000 square feet to the Jewish Federation for about $17.5 million, sources said.
SBC renews lease: SBC Communications Inc. has signed a five-year lease renewal for 102,000 square feet of space at Columbia Centre III, 9525 West Bryn Mawr Ave. in Rosemont, said Douglas Shehan , vice president with Trammell Crow Co., which manages the building. Tenant representative Equis Corp. represented SBC.
Carnegie, D2 buy Wacker site: A venture of Carnegie Realty Partners LLC and D2 Realty Services Inc. last week purchased 250 S. Wacker Drive, with plans to redevelop the 16-story tower into an office condominium. The price for the 236,400-square-foot structure was nearly $17 million, sources said.
The highly regarded D2 stepped in after an earlier deal between Carnegie and Sterling Bay Cos. fell apart. Now, Carnegie says it will market the office space, with D2 handling day-to-day development and management. But David Crawford of D2 said his firm has the majority stake.
Carnegie CEO John Thomas, under the name Bernard Barton, and Louis Giordano, another Carnegie executive, pleaded guilty in federal court on Long Island last year in connection with a $313,000 fraud scheme, court records show.
The case is being transferred to Chicago for sentencing, a federal prosecutor in New York said.
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