Crain's Chicago Business, 130 E. Randolph Street, Chicago, IL (2025)

10/15/2025

Since late summer, upper-income buyers have been snapping up $3 million-plus homes at warp speed. At least 13 homes in the Chicago area hit the market at $3 million and went under contract to buyers in 15 days or less. They are mostly in Lincoln Park, like Ames's listing, or on the North Shore. Four of them had buyer contracts signed within three days of hitting the market.

The $3 million-plus market represents about 0.16% of all homes in the Chicago metropolitan area. It's an exclusive realm of the market, but is witnessing the same dynamic that has been driving the market for homes at all prices recently: the inventory of homes for sale is short, so buyers have to act fast to get the one they want.

But agents working in the $3 million-plus market say there's more to it than that. Fueled by growing wealth from compensation, investments and inheritance and not held back by mortgage rates or other affordability challenges, upper-end buyers have been content to watch for their dream house to pop onto the market, and then they pounce.

The rarity of superior offerings "has created a new category of urgency," Finks wrote. It's about getting the right house, detached from the traditional early- to mid-summer urgent need to buy the next home in order to be in a new school district in time for the kids to start school.

Among the upper-end homes that have gone under contract fast are a private equity executive's $6.5 million home on Burling Street in Lincoln Park (pictured above) that landed a buyer in seven days, two on Chestnut Street in Wilmette that went under contract in three days and six days, and a row house on Deming Place that went under contract in three days.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-real-estate/chicagos-3m-homes-selling-fast-wealthy-buyers-compete?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/15/2025

Michigan ma*****na soon might not be quite the bargain that customers in Illinois and other nearby states have come to expect.

Legislators, desperate for money to fix Michigan’s roads, added a new 24% wholesale tax to cannabis products. Coupled with existing 16% retail taxes, it will bring the state’s taxes in line with Illinois at about 40%, which are among the highest rates in the nation.

It won’t completely close the gap: Michigan w**d is the cheapest in the nation before taxes and about half the price of Illinois ma*****na, thanks to a wide-open industry with few limits on new entrants and less-strict overall regulations, which has resulted in a huge imbalance of supply and demand. But ma*****na sellers in both states predict Michigan’s tax increase likely will keep at least some Chicago-area customers from making the trek to New Buffalo, where nearly two dozen w**d shops have sprung up in a town of about 2,000 people.

“The customer buying in bulk is likely to continue making the drive, but the convenience traffic is going to second guess,” says Mike DiLaura, chief corporate officer of House of Dank, a Detroit-based cannabis company with 15 retail shops, including one in New Buffalo. “Are you going to drive two hours to save 10 bucks?”

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/cannabis/why-michigan-ma*****na-about-get-more-pricey?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/15/2025

A new bill introduced in Springfield would require extensive public review of stadium deals and potentially force a team to repay subsidies if it relocates before the contract ends.

The legislation would require more transparency around any potential deal helping the Chicago Bears move to Arlington Heights as the team seeks help from Springfield that has yet to materialize.

It's also the latest sign of trouble for the Bears in Springfield, where lawmakers have said the team’s concerns are not a priority.

The Bears are pushing for legislation during the General Assembly's fall veto session to allow them to enter negotiations with local officials in Arlington Heights to receive a long-term property tax break on the site of their proposed $5 billion stadium-anchored campus.

The new legislation that aims to slow down the team's plans or block them altogether comes from state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, who has vocally opposed the team’s move out of the city.

Referencing the Bears' last-second winning field goal on Monday Night Football, Buckner told Crain’s the bill is meant to block any legislation from moving forward quickly.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/chicago-bears-focus-buckner-bill-slow-soldier-field-exit?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/14/2025

Lettuce Entertain You is partnering with James Beard Award finalist chef Thai Dang to open Crying Tiger, a Southeast Asian restaurant taking over the former Hub 51 space in River North.

Crying Tiger, which opened earlier this week at 51 W. Hubbard St., is the first collaboration between the Chicago hospitality giant and Dang, who has received wide acclaim and praise for his Vietnamese restaurant HaiSous in Pilsen.

“I’m really excited to have the sheer power of Lettuce Entertain You and the resources we have to build one of the most stunning Southeast Asian restaurants in the country,” Dang said.

Dang promised an elevated Thai experience that he said will be similar to what he has done with his take on Vietnamese food at HaiSous, which received a James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant in 2018 and was described in Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list as “refined Vietnamese cuisine.”

Dang said his menu will highlight Thai curries, using house-made curry paste, and include flavors and inspirations from Laos and Cambodia as well as his travels throughout the region. The restaurant will also draw on his time spent in Hong Kong and Cantonese cooking he learned through the years.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/restaurants/lettuce-entertain-you-chef-thai-dang-crying-tiger-river-north?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/14/2025

The Chicago Transit Authority says it plans to raise fares about 10% next year, following Metra’s announcement last week that it will raise fares 13% to 15%.

With the new budget proposals by CTA and Metra, commuters are starting to a get glimpse of how much of the tab they’ll be asked to pick up as pandemic-era federal funding dries up. Legislators are meeting this week to talk about ways to address the “fiscal cliff” across CTA, Metra and Pace that starts at $202 million next year and balloons to $789 million in 2027.

If implemented, these would be the first increases in fares for CTA or Metra since 2018.

The Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees budgets of all three agencies, already had told CTA, Metra and Pace it expected them to come up with $50 million — or 10% more — from the fare box.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/cta-metra-fare-hikes-signal-end-pandemic-era-aid?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/14/2025

Companies just wrapped up the best quarter of office demand in the suburbs since before the COVID-19 pandemic. But it didn' bring the local vacancy rate down from an all-time high.

The share of available workspace across the Chicago suburbs stood at 32.4% at the end of September. That figure was virtually even with the record-high set midway through the year, the real estate services firm reported.

The suburban office vacancy rate is up from 31.4% one year ago and 22.1% at the beginning of the public health crisis. The rate has set new high marks for 19 consecutive quarters.

The numbers highlight the lingering issue of empty office space infecting the local market after several years of companies embracing remote work and shrinking their footprints. For landlords, the loss of 4.7 million square feet of tenants since 2020 has thinned out bottom lines, while elevated interest rates have worsened the issue for those with maturing debt.

But the last three months brought a piece of welcome news. Net absorption, which measures the change in the amount of leased and occupied space compared with the prior period, rose by more than 216,000 square feet. It was only the third quarter the metric was positive since 2022 and marked the best quarter of demand since the end of 2019.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/suburban-office-demand-so-are-vacancies-heres-why?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/13/2025

With legislators set to return to Springfield with hopes of finally rescuing public transit, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is renewing its push for more than just the minimum investment needed to make up for expiring federal funding.

CMAP says legislators should dig deep to make an investment that would total $1.2 billion by 2027 and reach $2.2 billion annually by 2029. But to come up with that kind of money, legislators would have to consider controversial taxes, including an extension of the state’s sales tax beyond goods to include some services.

Although mass transit was weakened by the pandemic, it remains the heartbeat of the Chicago-area economy, bringing both workers and tourists in and out of the city and suburbs. Whatever solution legislators come up with will shape transportation and the economy for at least a generation.

The group first proposed its Plan of Action for Regional Transit two years ago. It’s a more challenging sell now, as legislators have to worry about not just the end of federal pandemic-relief funds for transit, but also the prospect of slumping state tax receipts. Gov. JB Pritzker has shown no interest in expanding the sales tax.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/springfield-weighs-2b-fix-chicago-transit-system?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/13/2025

Trader Joe’s is coming to Fulton Market as the neighborhood’s residential boom continues.

The grocery chain has signed a lease for an approximately 17,000-square-foot store at the base of LG Group’s planned 25-story apartment tower at 170 N. May St., LG CEO Brian Goldberg confirmed to Crain's.

The store would cater to the anticipated influx of residents coming to the trendy former meatpacking district, which has more than 3,000 apartment units today and an additional 10,000 proposed, according to data from CoStar Group and Integra Realty Resources.

Another grocery store, discount chain Aldi, is coming nearby to the West Loop in 2026 at the base of another planned apartment tower at 1016 W. Jackson Blvd.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/trader-joes-coming-fulton-market?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/13/2025

Michael Ferro, the tech entrepreneur who for several years in the 2010s dominated newspaper publishing in Chicago, plans a multimillion-dollar renovation of the castle-like DuSable Lake Shore Drive penthouse he bought in 2024, the Chicago Tribune reports.

In late September, the city issued a permit for work that includes updating utilities and windows and some unspecified demolition at the two-story unit at the top of a 1920s co-op building.

According to the Tribune, the property owners are Michael and Jacqueline Ferro and the cost of the work is estimated at $2.85 million. That may represent only part of the rehab cost, as permit values do not reflect the cost of plumbing fixtures, lights, paint or other outside-the-walls finishes.

Even at $2.85 million, the total investment in the property will top $10.5 million. The 8,000-square-foot unit, with eight bedrooms and a unique outdoor lawn and fountain 24 stories above the drive, sold in 2024 for $7.7 million.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-real-estate/michael-ferro-plans-rehab-lake-shore-drive-penthouse?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/10/2025

When she first spotted the 1920s Spanish Revival cottage set atop a wooded dune in Beverly Shores, Mary Skoning recalls being charmed by both the house and its setting.

The latter was despite the fact that she was house-hunting in winter, when the trees were bare and gray. Come the green seasons, and it only got better: lusher and prettier, the perfect warm-seasons home for Skoning and her husband. Gerry Skoning.

The two-bedroom, three-bathroom house is one of the originals in Beverly Shores, which first developed in the 1920s as an Indiana lakefront getaway for Chicagoans. Decades later the town would become a unique island, with Indiana Dunes National Park on three sides and Lake Michigan on the fourth.

Before a fire a decade ago, the Skonings' house still looked mostly as it had when built. They resolved to rebuild as close to the original as possible, while also making a few smart changes. Among them: adding a screened porch that juts out into the woods and extending the primary bedroom out toward the trees.

Gerry Skoning died in 2023, and Mary Skoning wants her northern home to be closer to family in the western suburbs. She's putting the property, a 2,300-square-foot house on four-tenths of an acre, up for sale at slightly more than $1 million.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/it-hits-market/beverly-shores-1920s-spanish-revival-cottage-listed-sale?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/09/2025

A massive shopping center northwest of Chicago is up for sale in another sign that the market for large retail properties is heating up.

Elmsford, New York-based DLC Management and Miami-based Rialto Capital have hired brokers at real estate services firm Newmark to seek a buyer for Randhurst Village, which spans nearly one million square feet at Rand and Elmhurst roads in Mount Prospect.

The property is expected to trade for about $100 million, according to Newmark, which would make it one of the Chicago area’s priciest retail transactions in recent years. Another large suburban shopping center, Algonquin Commons, sold to Nuveen for $100 million last month, a sign that institutional investors are coming off the sidelines after a slowdown in big retail transactions due in part to high interest rates.

Nationally, there were 17 retail property transactions of $100 million or more in the first half of 2025, compared to eight during the same period in 2024, according to data from MSCI Real Assets cited by Newmark.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/randhurst-village-mount-prospect-sale?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/09/2025

Another quantum-computing company is coming to the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park.

Pasqal, a French startup, will set up its U.S. headquarters at the quantum park that’s being built on the sprawling former U.S. Steel South Works on the far South Side. It joins Silicon Valley startup PsiQuantum and Boulder, Colorado-based Infleqtion among the growing roster of companies that have announced plans to build quantum computers at the IQMP.

Ever since Gov. JB Pritzker convinced legislators to commit $500 million to developing a quantum-computing industry, Illinois has been racing to establish itself as the leader in the space. It has been building critical mass in the nascent industry, signing up IBM and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as tenants, along with Australian startup Diraq.

Pasqal will invest at least $65 million to set up its first U.S. operations in Chicago and create 50 jobs under an agreement with the state, which is providing $6.1 million in incentives and a $15 million loan to the company.

Quantum computing is still in the early phases of development, and there’s no guarantee the technology live up to hype that it will revolutionize drug discovery, materials science or information security. But investors are optimistic, pouring more money into quantum companies such as Pasqal and PsiQuantum.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/technology/french-quantum-company-pasqal-bring-us-hq-chicago?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

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