CBRE Leases at Block 37, Freed Takes Credit

Other tenants signed include Alternatives Shoes, Simply Thalia, Andy's Frozen Custard, Michele Tan and Comic Vault, for a total of more than 13,000 square feet. "There is a significant amount of momentum and excitement around Block 37," said Leslie Mader with CBRE.

Freed, which has fought the appointment of CBRE in court, said Friday that it takes credit for the recent leases. All eight of the leases were negotiated by Freed, and seven of the eight were sent to the bank for approval prior to the delivery of possession to the receiver, said a Freed spokeswoman in a statement. The leases were negotiated by Freed from July 2009 to December 2009, she said.

"(Freed) remains committed to the success of the Block 37 project," she said in the statement. "We are proud that leases we negotiated are moving forward because we believe these tenants will be strong additions to the project…It is disappointing that these tenants have not been able to open for business and put their employees to work and that the project has lost all of the revenue from these leases for these many months due to Bank of America's actions. Our only question is, what took the bank so long?"

The spokeswoman further tells GlobeSt.com that Freed had signed 13 tenants, including these eight, and had turned the leases over to the bank for approval. "They have just been sitting at the bank," she says. One additional tenant, Sephora, which opened in March, was also negotiated by Freed, she says.

A spokeswoman for CBRE did not comment when asked about Freed's claims. A Bank of America spokesman did not return calls for comment.

Freed is currently smarting under a recent court ruling in the case. The bank successfully argued earlier this month that the developer owes the full amount of $146 million for the construction loan default, rather than a $50 million guarantee the bank was previously seeking. The bank said that a loan clause allows the bank to seek the full amount if the developer contested or blocked the receiver.

The occupancy level of the retail building, which includes shops in the Pedway, isn't clear. Other tenants include GNC Live Well, Anthropologie, Sunglass Hut, Au Bon Pain, PUMA, Zarra and Steve Madden.

The office building on the site is pretty much completely leased up, with tenants such as Morningstar and CBS, the Freed spokeswoman says. A planned CTA station at the site also failed because of a lack of funds.