The building was constructed in the 1960s and was occupied byBankers Life & Casualty Co. until 1993, he says. It was thenrenovated into a multi-tenant office and warehouse building. TheVillage of Northbrook has rezoned the property, so that the spacecannot be occupied for industrial uses, leaving little possibilityto lease-up the property, Malm says. "We identified the property asa functionally obsolete facility and there was a potential for ahigher use for it," he says. The venture plans to demolish theexisting structure and prepare the site for the senior housingdevelopment. The prepared site will then be sold to SLC, which willdevelop the facility, Malm says.

A five-story building will have a 136 independent living unitsconnected with a one-story structure to a four-story building with32 assisted living units and 12 special memory care units. Theunits will be for rent, Malm says. The single-story structureconnecting the two is expected to have dining facilities and commonareas. The project will have mostly underground parking with almostno surface parking, he says. The demolition and site work will bedone by the venture with the building constructed by SLC.Construction is expected to begin late this year or early in 2009and the development is expected to be completed in 2010.

The joint venture had considered redeveloping the site into ananimal emergency hospital, self-storage facility, medical office,health club and office building, Malm says. "Any way you look atit, a portion would have needed to be torn down," he says. The ideaof a senior housing development "was supported by the village [and]it was supported by the neighborhood," he says. Additionally, asenior housing development "is probably going to be the highestreturn of our investment," Malm says. Mitch Loveman, with ColliersBennett & Kahnweiler, represented the joint venture in thetransactions. Sam Badger, with Paine Wetzel, represented GoldRealty in the sales transaction. Steve Levitas and Bob Chodos, bothwith Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler, represented SLC in thedevelopment agreement.