CHICAGO—Last year, when Chicago-based Urban Innovations, a company with a lot of property in the River North neighborhood, repurchased, at a significantly lower price, several office buildings in the West Loop's Greektown neighborhood that the firm had sold to another investor in 2005, the property had a 30% vacancy rate. But the company just signed a new 17,000-square-foot lease at 322 S. Green St., one of the buildings, to Elevate Energy, a non-profit organization, formerly known as CNT Energy, which assists users in accessing more efficient energy sources.

Aaron Zaretsky handles leasing for the now fully-leased 322 S. Green St., and has increased its occupancy by 42%. Elevate Energy was represented by William Donahue of Lichter Realty, Inc. The property was recently renovated and includes newly expanded restrooms, corridor and lobby upgrades, a bicycle storage room, fully built-out office suites and fiber connectivity from multiple service providers.

Urban Innovations repurchased the Green St. building and the adjacent 833 W. Jackson Blvd. from Wells Fargo for only $14 million, or about $4 million less than they sold them for in 2005. The previous owner was probably undercapitalized, Mike Scilingo, president of Urban Innovations, told GlobeSt.com, and unable to keep up the common areas and provide proper services. “He was just overextended,” and perhaps more importantly, may not have understood the Greektown office market.

“The tenants tend to be smaller,” Scilingo said, and include a lot of nonprofits with a social mission. “They're at a difficult stage of the entrepreneurial cycle,” most of them either downsizing or just starting to ramp up and expand, and want to temporarily settle in Greektown's older industrial lofts. “You make money on the renewals, so it's a gamble with each new tenant that they will remain viable and in business.” Therefore, a landlord needs to carefully pick enough tenants that will stick around, at least for awhile.

Urban Innovations has a lot of experience in the city's off-Loop loft-style office market. The company has nine properties in River North, a neighborhood it began developing in the 1970s. Including Greektown, it has an office portfolio of about 750,000-square-feet.

Instant Insights /

Urban Innovations Leases Up West Loop Bldg.

Related Stories

Recommended For You