Anthropologie is opening a store at 111 E. Chicago Ave., the former site of the American Girl store just west of Michigan Avenue. Get the full story »
Filed under: Real estate
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Discover eyes mortgage, checking deals
Discover Financial Services, fresh from a deal to buy Citigroup’s private student loan assets, is also considering ways to enter the mortgage and checking businesses, Chief Executive David Nelms told Reuters on Monday. Get the full story »
Housing starts rise 10.5% in August
Home construction increased last month and applications for building permits also grew. But the gains were driven mainly by apartment and condominium construction, not the much larger single-family homes sector. Get the full story »
Sep. 20, 2010 at 4:49 p.m.
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Filed under: Economy, Housing, Mortgages, Real estate, Updated U.S. homebuilder sentiment stays in doldrums
U.S. home-builder sentiment remained stuck at a 1-1/2-year low in September, the latest suggestion the sector is in for a painful and prolonged climb back to health.
The National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo said Monday that their Housing Market Index for single family homes held for the second straight month at 13 — the lowest level since March 2009. Economists had expected the index to edge up to 14.
A reading above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. The index has not been above 50 since April 2006. Get the full story »
Bridgeport couple sued for housing discrimination
Radio personality and comedian George Willborn arriving at a press conference to talk about the discrimination suit on Aug. 26, 2010. (Heather Charles/Chicago Tribune)
The federal government filed a civil lawsuit Monday against a couple living in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood and their real estate agent, for allegedly refusing to sell their home to an African-American family.
The filing, made in U.S. District Court in Chicago, names as defendants Daniel and Adrienne Sabbia; their real estate agent, Jeffrey Lowe; and Midwest Realty Ventures, which does business as Prudential Rubloff Properties.
The lawsuit was expected. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development originally filed a federal housing discrimination complaint last month against the parties after it determined that Chicago radio personality George Willborn’s failed efforts to buy the Sabbias’ home was the result of housing discrimination. The case was moved to the Justice Department in late August. Get the full story »
Ally halts some evictions in Illinois, 22 states
GMAC Mortgage, a unit of Ally Financial Inc., is continuing with new residential foreclosures despite a report it had stopped them, a spokeswoman said Monday.
But some evictions have been suspended while the company reviews its internal procedures, the company said. Get the full story »
Wal-Mart planning smaller urban stores
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is planning an aggressive push into urban markets with a new small format that’s a fraction of the size of its supercenters.
The expansion is aimed at pumping up sluggish U.S. sales. The retailers is expected to spell out more details next month at a meeting with analysts. Get the full story »
Sep. 20, 2010 at 11:57 a.m.
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Filed under: Commercial real estate, Health care, Real estate Children’s taps U.S. Equities to sell Lincoln Park site
Children’s Memorial Hospital has hired Chicago-based commercial real estate firm U.S. Equities Realty to market the land and building at its current tony Lincoln Park location.
Calling it “one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the Midwest,” hospital officials are hoping the prime six-acre real estate site will fetch a large sum.
Hospital officials would not disclose or speculate on what the sale of the property may raise but it is certainly worth tens of millions of dollars even in the current down market for real estate, say Chicago real estate observers. Get the full story »
General Growth to pay Hughes heirs $230M
General Growth Properties Inc. says it will pay $230 million to some of the heirs of moviemaker and aviation mogul Howard Hughes to settle a dispute over a Las Vegas development. Get the full story »
Sep. 17, 2010 at 3:30 p.m.
Filed under: Commercial real estate, Food, Real estate, Restaurants, Updated Water Tower Place Chick-fil-A planned for 2011
Chick-fil-A is bringing its fried chicken sandwiches and waffle fries to downtown Chicago next spring.
Although the lease has yet to be signed, John E. Featherston Jr., Chick-fil-A’s senior director of real estate, said that a Chick-fil-A restaurant will open near Water Tower Place.
“I’ve been to a lot of intersections downtown, and this is the first one where I want to plant the flag,” Featherston said. “Hopefully this will lead to others.” Get the full story »
Sep. 17, 2010 at 2:01 p.m.
Filed under: Commercial real estate, Law firms, Real estate, Work culture Bedbugs bite Winston & Strawn in N.Y.
New York’s bedbugs don’t discriminate. They’ve infested dorm rooms as well as posh offices on Park Avenue, as Winston & Strawn discovered this week.
The Chicago-based law firm is dealing with an infestation of bedbugs at its New York office at 200 Park Ave., the MetLife Building. As of Friday morning, the landlord had not resolved the problem. Get the full story »
Fannie, Freddie 2 of nation’s biggest homesellers
Two years after they were taken over by the federal government, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac face a new challenge: The mortgage-finance giants are becoming two of the nation’s largest home sellers at a time when the housing market shows new signs of softening.
Fannie and Freddie have already taken back nearly as many homes in the first half of the year as they did all of last year. They owned more than 191,000 homes at the end of June, double the year-earlier total. That number will grow because they are taking back homes faster than they sell them. Get the full story »
Illinois home foreclosures fall 14% from July
The fewest number of initial foreclosure notices were sent to Illinois homeowners in August since February but more than 4,000 homes in the state continue to be repossessed by lenders each month, new data shows.
In August, 6,912 Illinois homeowners received notice that their loans were in default and their lender had started foreclosure proceedings against them, a decrease of almost 19 percent from July’s activity, RealtyTrac reported. Get the full story »
Pew finds abandoning home loan acceptable to 36%
From Bloomberg News | A survey from the Pew Research Center found that more than one-third of Americans say it’s acceptable to stop paying a mortgage and walk away from one’s home under some circumstances.
Rapper Common renting out Museum Park condo
Common at the 2010 Grammy Awards. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | A South Side native, Grammy-winning rapper and actor Common is something of a renaissance man, with a string of rap hits and a growing acting career that has included roles in big box-office drawing films like “Terminator Salvation,” “Street Kings,” and “Date Night.”
One of Common’s lesser-known roles, however, is as a real-estate investor here in town, where the 38-year-old has a 12th-floor condo unit that he owns in Museum Park on the South Side. It’s up for rental for $2,500 a month.
Common paid $402,000 in mid-2008 to buy the two-bedroom unit new. Located in a building that was constructed that year, the 1,248-square-foot unit has two baths, floor-to-ceiling windows, views of the Field Museum, a separate den/office, a private balcony, and a stone master bath with shower seat sprays. Get the full story »
