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Over the past several years the Chicago suburban real estate market has struggled. But, the recent decision by Caterpillar to relocate its global headquarters to Deerfield may be a harbinger of things to come. Are corporations starting to see the virtues of staying in the burbs?

On the heels of the co-working boom, we are seeing the next wave of alternative occupancy by traditional developers.

According to recent studies, the logistics and industrial sectors are set to continue their growth in 2017, as consumer demand for online purchasing grows. Excluding automobile sales, eCommerce has grown from 1% in the first quarter of 2000 to 9.3% in the third quarter of 2016. We expect that share to increase by another 1% by the end of 2018. The current rate of $100 billion eCommerce sales per month will increase by roughly 25% to nearly $125 billion per month in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The race is on for companies looking to attract young, talented employees. According to a recent study, Millennial workers place more value on a potential job’s location and amenities than young workers have in the past. No longer are recent college graduates simply content with moving to wherever they can find steady employment. This has led to an interesting development in the world of commercial real estate, as companies are beginning to develop their office spaces and move their corporate headquarters to more desirable locations to Millennials.

Co-working spaces are all the rage in commercial real estate this year, and recent studies show that this trend is not likely to slow down anytime soon.

The modern office space has changed. In the past, the demands of the vertically integrated corporation required tight coordination in both space and time, what architect, Frank Duffy calls “synchrony” and “co-location.”

Many businesses are feeling pressure to curb costs by reducing their office footprint. In the year 2000, there was an average of 253 square feet per worker.

We’ve all heard the term “branding” but for most of us it’s seemed like just another name for the familiar business of marketing. Some people think it’s the packaging around a product – the logos and colors; others think it’s the sum total of the advertising that promotes a company. Both are wrong. Interbrand defines […]

As more and more people shop online, industry experts say that e-Commerce has the potential to eclipse traditional retail shopping. And with the increasing number of mobile sales transactions, this transition could happen sooner than we think. Launched in 1999 as an exclusive online purveyor of floral arrangements and gifts, Flora2000 is a particularly good […]

CMBS was a $230 billion industry prior to the recession. Today, we live in an era of lowered expectations where every victory needs celebrating as we get back into gear. Take Chicago, where lenders originated and sold off $2.48 billion in loans on Chicago-area properties last year, more than double the $1.20 billion in 2012, according […]