The deal is the largest portfolio sale of Chicago-area real estate assets to hit the market during this economic cycle, according to Jon Winick, president of Clark Street Capital. Roughly 95% of the assets are located in the Chicagoland area, with the remainder located in Central Illinois and Western Michigan, Winick tells GlobeSt.com. The exact properties cannot be disclosed at this point in the sale process.

On Wednesday, Clark Street Capital sent a memo to investors regarding the sale, which is expected to close by the middle of February. Winick says a number of companies have already expressed interest.

"We have already received dozens of confidentiality agreements signed without much information yet on the portfolio," he tells GlobeSt.com. "With the diversity of the pools, we expect a broad spectrum of buyers, ranging from the largest money-center banks to the mid-size debt funds and the local fee-simple real estate buyers who are now looking at debt."

Winick believes other deals like this one, will be in the making during 2010. "For about a year, the sales of real estate debt and real property grinded to a halt, as buyers and sellers stopped trading. After sitting on the sidelines, there is pent up demand for transactions," Winick says.

"Buyers are recognizing that the rock-bottom fire sale prices of the Winter of '09 are behind us and Sellers are becoming more realistic about the value of their assets. In order for lending to improve in the banking industry, banks must begin to put their problem assets behind."