Home merchandise retailer Linens ‘n Things Inc. is looking for another retailer to sublease its high-profile store at Rush and Ontario Streets, a step toward the eventual closing of the outlet, part of the 600 N. Michigan Ave. development.
Linens has hired retail real estate firm Katz & Associates Corp. of Pearl River, N.Y., to find a subtenant for the store, confirmed William Giles, chief financial officer and senior vice president of Linens, which has 343 stores nationwide, including 17 locally.
The Michigan Avenue store is one of 17 locations that the company last month decided to close because of poor sales, he said. Linens expects to open as many as five new stores in the Chicago area over the next two years, he added.
No closing date has been set for the 42,000-square-foot Michigan Avenue store, he said.
The store, which opened in 1996, is on the upper level of 600 N. Michigan, sharing an entrance with discount apparel retailer Marshalls.
Under a long-term lease, Linens pays an annual net rent of about $30 per square foot, not including taxes and operating expenses, sources said.
Trump agreement: The Trump Organization’s assertion that it never hired broker John Thomas of Carnegie Realty Partners is contradicted by a commission agreement signed Feb. 14, said attorney Eugene Murphy, who represents Thomas in connection with an arrest last year on fraud charges.
Last week, the Trump Organization said it had retained Chicago-based U.S. Equities Realty LLC to handle leasing of the proposed 2.4 million-square-foot building, to be called Trump Tower Chicago. Carnegie initially marketed the project, although Trump executives have said they believed the Chicago-based firm was representing potential tenants.
“Trump can change his mind and hire somebody else, but the fact is that even before the written agreement, John was working for Trump,” said Murphy, a partner with Chicago-based law firm Horwood Marcus & Berk.
Thomas may not be charged as a result of a federal investigation into a billboard leasing company he once ran, Murphy said. A resolution of the case is expected in a couple of months.
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The agreement, signed by Trump senior vice president Charles Reiss, calls for payment of a reduced commission of 37.5 cents per square foot if law firm Katten Muchin & Zavis signs a 250,000-square-foot lease in the proposed skyscraper.
The law firm, now at 525 W. Monroe St., is advised exclusively by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., said a spokeswoman for the Chicago-based real estate firm.
It’s common practice for developers and landlords to pay the fees of a tenant’s broker.
Reiss said the Trump Organization agreed to the payment as part of a settlement with Thomas, who, according to the contract, waived any claims for additional compensation.
Reiss added: “When we went to the Katten Muchin meeting, we thought [Thomas] was brokering for them. They thought he was brokering for us. But he did perform the services of a broker–he brought two parties together.”
Schaumburg building sold: Hamilton Partners is acquiring a four-story office building in Schaumburg, a sign of the strong market for investment sales of properties under $15 million.
The Itasca-based real estate developer emerged from a field of eight bidders, said Kenneth J. Szady, senior vice president in the Chicago office of Trammell Crow Co., which represented the seller. Szady would not comment on the price, which sources said was in the mid-$9 million range for the 100,000-square-foot property.
Built in 1984, the building was owned by a joint venture of the real estate arm of USAA, a San Antonio-based insurer, and TMW Real Estate Group LLC, an Atlanta-based adviser to overseas investors.