Articles About Illinois

One of the biggest issues we’ve faced is the stability of the capital markets, which are slow but showing some signs of life.  You have to look closely, but there are some positive signs.  At the end of March, two office properties sold for more than $500,000,000 each.  These included the UBS Tower in Chicago, […]

When you embark upon a construction project today, the process is one of tight controls, vigilant attention to detail, and a careful balance of cost, schedule, safety, and quality.  Industry professionals are highly skilled and often highly specialized.  It takes an integrated team effort including the owner, design professionals, construction professionals, and many other stakeholders […]

I recently hosted a panel at DePaul University in Chicago on the history of corporate real estate, which highlighted the sector’s emergence from an embedded functionary to a stand-alone department with direct reporting to the CFO.  Unlike today’s more integrated version, the blueprint for corporations throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s was the holding company corporate model, featuring […]

A recent report by Crain’s Real Estate Report (2/28/08) features a story about Schneider Logistics, an Evanston, IL-based company moving to downtown Chicago for one reason — the need to recruit young college graduates. According to Vice-president and General Manager Charles Craigmile, “it’s much better from a recruiting standpoint. Evanston is beautiful, but it’s tough […]

Dear Friends, Welcome to Alter NOW, our company’s brand new blog. We hope you’ll find it informative as we set out to chronicle the important trends underway in our industry. We hope to keep this free from sales and marketing language and simply use it as a way to start a dialogue with the stakeholders […]