Chicago saw its foreclosure rate jump 25.52 percent this April when compared to the same month in 2011. In St. Louis, foreclosure activity rose 28.53 percent. Minneapolis saw a smaller increase in April, 3.44 percent.

There was some good news from the report, though. Detroit saw its foreclosure rate fall 32.22 percent this April when compared to the same month one year earlier.

In Chicago, one in every 321 housing units had a foreclosure filing in April, while in St. Louis one of every 696 houses had a filing. In Minneapolis, that figure stands at one in every 543 housing units. In Detroit, one in every 363 housing units had a foreclosure filing during April.

Across the country, foreclosure activity in April fell 14 percent from the same month in 2011. According to RealtyTrac, one in every 698 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.

What does the future hold? That’s the big question. According to a press release from RealtyTrac, a growing number of potential foreclosures are being sold as short sales. There’s no guarantee, though, that foreclosures won’t jump again as banks work their way through the defaults clogging their books.

GNMA/FHA Section 223(f) financing recently was secured in the amount of $24.4 million for La Serena at the Heights, a 360-unit multi-family community located in Henderson, Nevada. GNMA/FHA Section 223(a)(7) existing insured refinances also were completed in the amounts of $12.6 million for 158-unit 901 Place Apartments in Charlotte, NC; and $3.4 million for the 144-unit Hideaway Apartments and $2.5 million for the 78-unit Hideaway Townhomes, both in Westerville, Ohio.

This annual award recognizes the “best of the best” in commercial real estate brokerage by highlighting the U.S. firms and individual brokers who closed the highest transaction volumes in commercial property sales and leases for the entire year of 2011 in their respective markets.

Lee & Associates, LLC qualified as one of the top commercial brokerage firms in its market based on total lease transactions closed during the year. To be selected for this honor, Lee & Associates was evaluated against other commercial real estate brokerage firms active in its region by CoStar Group, and subsequently ranked among the top firms in the market.

Bill Drinkall represented seller Key Lanes while Mike Dahm represented buyer Morningstar Equity in the sale of a 32,700-square-foot retail buidling in Fort Wayne. Stanley Phillips represented Fort Wayne Associates in its lease of Phil’s Hobby Shop, a 6,218-square-foot retail space also in Fort Wayne. Tyler Binkley represented Phil’s Hobby Shop in this transaction.

John Caffray represented buyer Sassafras Holdings on the purchase of a 9,582-square-foot retail/restaurant building in Bluffton, Ind.

West Bloomfield, Mich.-based Mid-America Real Estate-Michigan in early May completed the sale of the former Border’s Books in Birmingham, Mich. Susan Acciaioli and Brad Rosenberg of the company represented the buyer of the 32,487-square-foot building, Related Birmingham, LLC.

The new owner is a private investor.

The Koman Group is the owner/developer of the project, and Space LLC will provide architectural services.  Construction began in January of 2012.  The project will include both office and retail space.

Clayco has extensive experience in historic restoration in downtown St. Louis including the Cupples Station Loft Apartments, a 131-unit historic redevelopment project, and the MerchandiseMart Apartments located on Washington Avenue.

“Clayco already has a strong connection to downtown St. Louis, and this project holds particular significance for us because of our involvement with other historic buildings near Cupples 9,” said Tom Sieckhaus, senior vice president and partner at Clayco, and who is also the project executive for the Cupples 9 renovation.  “The beauty of this project is that we are able to maintain the classic design elements and history of this building while giving it the structural updates and aesthetic enhancements it needs to become a jewel of downtown St. Louis once again.”

The construction, which will begin in late May, will mark the first new inventory industrial building in the greater Indianapolis market since 2008, and will be the largest inventory building in Marion County.

“Fruition of this development is great news for Indianapolis and a terrific fit for AmeriPlex,” said Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. “We have worked to market the outstanding real estate at the business park, and IDI’s decision to develop this space is ideal not only for the company but logistically for the kinds of businesses we aim to land here.”

IDI World Connect Building 1 at AmeriPlex Business Park will be located at 6161 Decatur Boulevard in Indianapolis. The building is being designed to meet LEED specifications set forth by the U.S. Green Building Council, and should be ready for occupancy in December of 2012. The facility will include significant office entry features, skylights and extra-wide 60-foot structural bays.

“Market conditions indicate a readiness for inventory development, and we look forward to bringing a state-of-the-art facility to the Indianapolis area,” said Doug Armbruster, regional development officer for IDI’s Cincinnati office. “The park’s location next to the airport makes it a prime logistics hub, and we look forward to serving the needs of our future tenants in Indianapolis.”

Develop Indy, Indianapolis’ local economic development organization, will work with Cushman & Wakefield/Summit Realty Group, the listing agent for IDI, to lease the property. Andrew Morris and Andrea Hopper of Cushman & Wakefield/Summit Realty Group are the leasing agents.

Is pay as important to you as it is to your male colleagues? Are you as willing to take risks — the reasonable ones — as the man in the cubicle next door?

The answers to those two questions seem obvious. Of course, successful women in this field are willing to take risks to close the big deals. And of course they want to be every bit as well-compensated as are their male counterparts.

Unfortunately, many in commercial real estate still don’t understand this. This is the conclusion of a recent white paper by CREW Network — formerly known as Commercial Real Estate Women — that outlined several of the more pervasive myths hindering women who are attempting to reach the highest levels of their profession. The paper, Success and Satisfaction of Women in Commercial Real Estate: Retaining Exceptional Leaders, found that many in commercial real estate still believe that compensation is not as important to women as it is to men and that women are less willing than their male counterparts to take risks.

And both of these myths, in addition to others, are hampering women in what is still a largely male-dominated field.

“I still think women face real challenges in this industry,” said Amy Mistler, 2012 CREW-St. Louis president and a transactional real estate attorney with the law firm of Spencer Fane Britt & Browne, a firm that has offices in Kansas City; St. Louis; Omaha; Overland Park, Kan.; and Jefferson City, Mo. “I’ve been practicing for nearly 13 years. I’ve been in CREW for about 10. I can’t say that we have many more women in C-suite positions today than we had 10 years ago.”

And that’s the real challenge that women face in commercial real estate. There are exceptions, of course. But women tend to struggle to break into the highest-level of executive positions in this industry.

The myths are getting in the way. If commercial real estate professionals believe that women aren’t willing to take risks, they might not think that they have the bravery needed for the C-suite level. If they believe that women are willing to take lower salaries they might not think, again, that they have the business savvy to thrive at the highest levels of a commercial real estate firm.

“These all influence a woman’s progression in a company or firm,” Mistler said. “If everyone assumes that women care about certain things and men care about others, you can see how that would impede progress to the top ranks of a firm. We see that women tend to make it to a certain point, just below the C-suite level. Moving into the C-suite seems to be the challenge.”

It would be wrong to suggest that women haven’t made amazing gains in the commercial real estate world. But it’d be equally as wrong to suggest that they’re working on a level playing field with their male counterparts.

The seller was a local private investor.

Adam Firsel, Next Realty’s director of acquisitions, represented the Next Realty affiliate in the transaction. Firsel joined Next Realty at the beginning of the year.

Immediately following the acquisition, Next Realty began marketing the 17,000-square-foot site for redevelopment to national tenant prospects, including restaurants, small retailers, coffee shops and banks, as either a single or multi-tenant retail facility. The site could be configured to include a drive thru facility. 

The area of Lincolnwood where the parcel is situated is densely populated with more than 271,000 people in a three-mile radius. More than 26,000 vehicles travel Touhy Avenue per day and another 13,000 vehicles travel Crawford every day at this intersection.

According to Firsel, certain segments of the retail industry, including restaurants, coffee shops and banks, always are looking for new sites in densely-populated, well-traveled locations. He noted that this represents the seventh acquisition completed by Next Realty, which is capitalized by Next Realty Fund VII, in the last 18 months.

Located in close proximity to the Corporate Corridor, Arboretum Landmark will offer 310 residential units with distinct living configurations, a variety of high-end amenities, and access to more than 500 parking spaces for residents and guests to utilize.

Arboretum Landmark will feature condo-style amenities, including an outdoor heated swimming pool, patio area, communal gas grills, outdoor fire pit, fitness center, access to the building’s sunroom and will be a pet-friendly environment. Each unit will feature a “chef’s kitchen,” including stainless steel appliances and granite countertops.

The project will break ground in May and is slated for occupancy beginning September 2013. Opus Development Corporation is the developer and Opus Design Build LLC will serve as the general contractor.

The three-story residential building will feature a masonry façade accented by balconies and walk-out terraces, and residents will share access to a well-designed and expansive garden.  The Lodge of Northbrook will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom units that include contemporary stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, Merillat cabinetry, in-unit washers and dryers and extended ceiling heights. The new 156,434-square-foot development will incorporate below grade car parking for residents.  McShane will also construct shared amenity spaces that can be utilized by the seniors within the complex.  

JSSH Architects Inc. is providing the architectural services for this assignment that is slated for completion in June 2013.

In 13 months, Wirtz Realty transformed the dilapidated land, in part, into the new warehouse, which will have the capacity to hold 2.5 million cases of wine and spirits and includes a 25,000- square-foot temperature-controlled wine storage facility, the largest in the country. The advanced conveyor system sorts and moves up to 10,000 cases per hour to 39 shipping and receiving bays.  Once fully transitioned, the building will serve as the central headquarters for nearly 1,000 Wirtz Beverage Illinois employees and 1,500 premier beverage products. 

Two stories of corporate offices, a full gym with locker rooms for employees and a company-cafeteria, emphasizing healthy fare, also complement the facility. The Alchemy Room, designed by chefs, sommeliers and mixologists, features a commercial kitchen and demonstration bar with high-definition video screens for training, education and beverage development.

A world-class office tower, River Point was designed by architectural firm Pickard Chilton and will be built at 444 W. Lake St. on the western bank of the Chicago River near two rail hubs in the West Loop, overlooking the river toward Lake Michigan. Containing approximately 900,000 square feet of leasable space, the project also calls for construction of a 1.5-acre public park atop the existing rail infrastructure that will connect the tower and its 450-linear feet of newly landscaped walkway to the Chicago Riverwalk. The tower is pre-certified LEED Gold.

According to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, River Point will be the largest real estate project to be launched in the past five years in Chicago, where no other office tower construction projects are currently underway.

“River Point is a vote of confidence for our city, welcome news for the local economy, and a signal that Chicago is leading the nation in job creation and economic development,” Emanuel said. “The investors and developers are starting this project because they see that Chicago is a city on the move, shaping its own future, and attracting the best and brightest.”

“This project not only represents welcome economic news, it also responds to increasing corporate demand for the highest quality real estate,” said Daniel Fournier, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ivanhoé Cambridge. “River Point also offers us the chance to strengthen our strategic partnership with Hines, a flagship player in high-end real estate in the U.S. and around the globe.”

“River Point will drive strong enthusiasm in the next-generation real estate product market and will be a striking addition to Chicago’s much-loved and world-renowned architectural character,” said C. Kevin Shannahan, senior managing director/CEO – Midwest and Southeast regions at Hines. “Ivanhoé Cambridge’s formidable commitment to this development and the city of Chicago today is a beacon for economic recovery.”

The partnership of Hines with Ivanhoé Cambridge has an established track record for successful development in recent years with two other high-profile construction projects: Eighth Avenue Place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and the T1 tower in the La Défense business district of Paris. In addition, Ivanhoé Cambridge, with Hines as its partner developer, recently won a Paris competition among architects, developers and investors for construction of a twin-tower complex in the city’s 13th arrondissement. The project, called “Duo,” was selected over projects from three competing teams and has been declared the winner of the Paris Mayor’s Office Premier Immeuble de Grande Hauteur competition.

“The River Point project is truly exceptional, not only for its prime location and architectural quality, but also because it is taking shape at an auspicious moment, with all signs pointing to a substantial increase in demand for new office properties in downtown Chicago in the years to come,” said Bill Tresham, President, Global Investments, Ivanhoé Cambridge. “This is great news for Ivanhoé Cambridge, for Hines, for the City of Chicago and for the many large-scale corporations seeking prestigious and functional office space.”

The Tamarack Hills Development of Woodbury inched a step closer to recovery as Alerus Financial, represented by Dan Altstatt of CBC Griffin Co., sold the property to Logistics Planning Services of Mendota Heights. This company will now occupy the building.

The building, a Class-A office building, was foreclosed upon two years ago by Alerus Financial, and was one of many properties in the area that came back to the lenders during and after the recession of 2009.

“This was a great deal for both the bank and the buyer,” said Altstatt. “Truly a fair market deal in my opinion considering some of the difficulties we had with this particular asset. The buyer bought at the right time, and the seller met requirements set by the FDIC, so both parties are very pleased with the deal.”

Glenn Davis

Glenn Davis has been named the new president and managing director of Colliers International’s Indiana region.

Davis joined Colliers in December of last year as a senior vice president. He brings more than 14 years experience in the Indianapolis market to his new position.

Before joining Colliers, Davis worked for Duke Realty’s Indiana industrial group as a senior leasing and development representative.

The multi-family market remains the healthiest of all the commercial real estate sectors. And that’s the case in Cincinnati, too.

According to Marcus & Millichap, multi-family vacancy rates should fall to 4.7 percent this year, a dip of 60 basis points. This follows a dip of 140 basis points in 2011. Marcus & Millichap’s researchers point to a drop in demand for single-family homes — not surprising given the continuing fall in housing values — and an uptick in employment for this fall in vacancies.

Marcus predicts, too, that apartment rents will reach new highs in Cincinnati in 2012. According to the company’s figures, asking rents should increase 2 percent in 2012 to $726 a month. Effective rents should jump 2.4 percent to $692 a month.

And if you’re looking for new construction in the city, Marcus & Millichap has additional good news. According to the company, multi-family construction in Cincinnati will reach a nine-year high in 2012 as builders add 1,000 new units to the market. That’s signficantly higher than the 370 new multi-family units that hit Cincinnati last year.

And it’s yet another sign that multi-family, in just about every Midwest market, continues to thrive.

And he doesn’t feel guilty about it.

“Who created the housing bubble? Wall Street and the banks,” Maddux said. “They should do principal reductions. They are the ones who should take a loss. The peopel who made the most money from the housing bubble should lose the most money now that it’s popped. This shouldn’t fall on the average American who was simply following the American dream.”

Maddux has received a lot of press since 2008. He’s the chief executive officer of Carlsbad, Calif.-based YouWalkAway.com, a company that helps guide homeowners through the strategic default process. YouWalkAway.com provides legal advice, tax advice and document-checking services to homeowners who decide to stop making their mortgage payments because they are underwater on their home loans.

The fees that YouWalkAway.com charges vary based on the services that homeowners request, but clients typically pay about $1,000 for the adivce that the company provides.

Business, not surprisingly, has been strong: Maddux says that YouWalkAway.com averages more than 100 new clients every month. And that number should remain high; housing experts are waiting on a new round of housing foreclosures as banks and lenders more aggressively pursue delinquent homeowners.

This does impact commercial real estate professionals. After all, if people are walking away from their homes, the odds are good that they won’t be making many big purchases in the near future. When consumers aren’t active, that doesn’t bode well for the commercial real estate industry.

Making the decision to walk away from a mortgage loan and voluntarily fall into foreclosure isn’t an easy one. But Maddux says that his clients should not be considered unethical for no longer making their payments.

Strategic default, he says, is almost always a wise business decision.

“Whether it’s moral or not is not the issue. It’s whether it’s the smart thing to do,” Maddux said. “We’ve found that 99 percent of the time, walking away is the smart thing to do. There are a lot of people out there who are underwater by 20 percent or more. It’s a bad investment to keep making payments when you’re that far underwater. Even if you’re only 5 percent underwater and you can’t sell your house because of it, you can feel trapped.”

Foreclosure, of course, comes with consequences. They will stay on the credit reports of former homeowners for seven years, though the negative impact of this lowers with each passing year.

Then there’s the community-wide impact. If people begin walking away from their mortgags in droves, that could send the country into more economic problems. About 11 million homeowners owe more on their mortgage loans than what their homes are worth, accordingto CoreLogic. Just think what would happen to the economy if a good percent of these people decided to strategically default on these home loans.

Maddux, though, says that homeowners need to look at their own financial situations. A house is an investment, he says. And if a particular house is a bad investment, it makes sense for its owners to walk away.

“When we first started, people thought I was crazy. ‘Why would peopel pay money to have someome tell them not to make their house payment?’” Maddux said. “This is a unique and scary position to be in. I would equate it to representing yourself in court. It is something you can do on your own. But it’s not advisable that you do. People end up sick over the kind of stress that can come with this. They end up divorced. For a small fee it’s not a bad investment to make sure that you make it through the process OK.”

The Cary Company was represented by Tim Gallagher, SIOR, of Cawley Chicago and the landlord, Cabot Properties, was represented by Dominic Carbonari of JLL.

Clarion Partners and project manager Colliers International has contracted The Missner Group to complete the tenant improvements and office renovations within the distribution/warehouse facility. The project includes a 1,700-square-foot office build-out, ventilation renovations, a new store front entrance and exterior improvements. The entry construction will feature a precast panel with store-front glass that will serve as the main entrance for the building.

Jess Knigge, vice president of construction, is the project executive, Jack Sbertoli is the project manager and Bill Stransky is the superintendent on behalf of The Missner Group. Melissa Powell of Colliers International is overseeing the construction management. Harris Architects is providing architectural services on the project, which is slated for completion in early summer 2012.

According to the data:

• The current annualized rate of growth (1Q2012) came in at 1.11 percent, which is in line with the 1.01 percent forecast. This rate is consistent with the readings during the past several quarters, which have ranged from .87-1.26 percent.
• 1Q2012 growth was within normal range of 1-2 percent per year. The finding continues to be consistent with readings of the overall economy, which has seen GDP growth that is still positive but below long-term averages. Nevertheless, 1Q2012 marks the seventh consecutive quarter of positive growth in industrial demand, following seven prior quarters of deep contractions.
• Strong demand growth isn’t expected until later in 2012, contingent upon the overall economy resuming more normalized growth and other risks, such as the continued issues in Europe.
• Therefore, demand for industrial space is expected grow at an annualized rate of 1.14 percent in 2Q2012, which is at the low end of the normal range. Increasing rates of growth are expected to begin to occur by the second or third quarter of 2012, barring exogenous shocks.