Anovitz Associates

09/17/2023

Will WFH be the cause of the next recession, bank failures and cities without funding instead of a soft landing? Depends who you ask as usual.

Yesterday I attended a fascinating real estate investors’ conference for hedge funds, lenders and owners.

10/05/2022

Optimism for the upcoming 34th Ward revamp could help boost the downtown business district as well as provide further growth for the hot west loop market.
https://anovitz.com/34th-ward-revamp/
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/chicago-34th-ward-alderman-loop-downtown-revival

Whoever is elected in the newly created ward will have an enormous say in the direction of downtown—for better and for worse.

01/16/2022

04/05/2021

When the pandemic hit in March of 2020 and everyone started working from their homes no one was certain what the office space world would look like in the future. Would the Willis Tower be turned into residential condos, would Chicago’s central business district become a ghost town?

Talking with tenants, brokers and employees over the last 12 months we think a hybrid working environment is the most likely scenario in the short term and a small growth of WFH may take hold over a longer period. Many companies require security on their work-product which is made more difficult with multiple remote locations and many managers will still want to keep an eye on their employees.

It may be too early to speculate, but recent commercial activity shows things have definitely picked up. There is still a need for office space. The question is how will it be configured. Only time will tell.

READ MORE https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/office/office-footprints-not-expected-shrink-tide-turning-108260?utm_source=outbound_pub_77&utm_campaign=outbound_issue_47180&utm_content=outbound_link_2&utm_medium=emailhttps://www.bisnow.com/national/news/office/office-footprints-not-expected-shrink-tide-turning-108260?utm_source=outbound_pub_77&utm_campaign=outbound_issue_47180&utm_content=outbound_link_2&utm_medium=email

09/30/2019

https://anovitz.com/a-warning-sign-city-hall-should-heed/

A key indicator of the health of the downtown office market has begun to flash red. Author GREG HINZ On Politics. As Mayor Lori Lightfoot prepares to present her critical first city budget, a key indicator of the health of the downtown office market has begun to flash red—a sign of the difficultie...

08/14/2019

https://anovitz.com/news/

River West site next to Tribune Media megaproject hits the market
The Salvation Army is looking to sell its main downtown campus in the River West neighborhood, hoping to cash in on real estate investors’ appetite for land near the gentrifying North Branch of the Chicago River.

The Salvation Army is looking to sell its main downtown campus in the River West neighborhood, hoping to cash in on real estate investors’ appetite for land near the gentrifying North Branch of the Chicago River. Paving the way for what could be a big redevelopment project in the city’s expandin...

10/02/2018

The Crain’s Chicago Business article on September 28 regarding continued expansion of Fulton Market into the Kinzie corridor is I believe not a question of IF but WHEN this and other areas near downtown start seeing lots of development. The Cook County Assessor’s office has been sending out notices of increased values all over the city this year and the CBD has not been immune to the enormous increases which people have been seeing. With assessed values going up, property taxes in the CBD will be increasing dramatically in the next few years and since almost all commercial leases contain language which passes this on to tenants businesses will soon see their occupancy costs increasing quite a bit. This may have the effect of pushing some of those companies away from the CBD and out into the neighboring areas of the West and South Loop. River North may already be too built up and expensive and could also see some migration due to these tax increases.

The next big developer land grab in Chicago is starting to take shape, but whether it escalates into an investor stampede is up to City Hall.