The auction of the partially completed corporate campus of MarchFirst Inc. has been rescheduled now that the bankruptcy trustee for the defunct Internet consulting firm has reached an agreement with a new buyer, developer Michael Drew.
MarchFirst’s assets are being liquidated after the firm filed for bankruptcy last year and abruptly abandoned the $139 million Near West Side development.
Chicago-based real estate brokerage firm Millennium Properties Inc. will conduct a June 5 auction for the property, which includes 3.1 acres of land, two partially renovated loft office buildings, and two unfinished structures: a seven-story office building and a 664-car garage.
Qualified bidders will have to offer at least $5.55 million, which is $250,000 more than the price agreed upon by AprilFirst LLC, an ironically named investment vehicle controlled by Drew, which four years ago developed Sara Lee Corp.’s Goose Island research facility.
The new contract replaces an earlier deal with a joint venture of two Chicago-based firms: MCZ Development Inc. and Jameson Realty Group Inc. That deal collapsed when an agreement could not be reached for reduced payment of more than $16 million owed general contractor Turner Corp. and subcontractors.
A key to the current deal: Michael Drew, president of Chicago-based Drew Cos., said he is close to signing an agreement to settle the construction liens. If this deal collapses, Drew has at risk non-refundable earnest money of just $100,000.
Drew said he made a deal over the construction bills by persuading Turner that he is serious about closing. “We aren’t kicking tires,” he said.
Drug store CVS Corp. has signed a lease for an 8,500-square-foot store at 205 N. Michigan Ave., the fourth downtown store for the Rhode Island-based drugstore chain.
To make room for the pharmacy, Lenscrafters Inc., a longtime tenant in 205, will take over a former bank branch office in 225 N. Michigan Ave, while Federal Express will move to space inside 225.
In the lease negotiations, Chicago-based Stone Real Estate represented the owner of the two towers, a New York joint venture of RAK Group and Witkoff Group.
Evanston Dominick’s: Chicago developer David Dubin, a specialist in moderately priced homes, has a contract to acquire a shuttered Dominick’s grocery store in Evanston, with plans to demolish the structure to make way for a $36 million, 90-unit townhome development. The president of Dubin Residential said he expects to close on the purchase of the 120,000-square-foot site in June.
McClayton moves: Thomas McClayton is joining Fulcrum Asset Advisors LLC, a Barrington-based real estate investment boutique formed in 2000 by two former colleagues.
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McClayton, 51, was previously managing director of the Chicago capital markets group for Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., where he worked 12 years with Fulcrum’s founders, Scott Stahr and Thomas Cox.
Downtown looks up: The downtown market for new homes rebounded during the first quarter with 911 sales, after a dismal fourth quarter in which just 92 units were sold after the terrorist attacks and the recession combined to slow the market to a crawl.
The first-quarter results were just shy of the 934 units sold during the third quarter of 2001, according to a report by Appraisal Research Counselors Ltd.
“The newly started sales programs were still drawing the largest amount of sales activity, while buildings nearing or at completion were getting a much smaller share of buyer interest,” according to the Downtown Chicago Residential Benchmark Report.
While existing new developments are taking longer to sell out, buyer demand for new projects is still growing.