INDUSTRIAL - RETAIL - LAND - OFFICE - DEVELOPMENT - BUSINESS BROKERAGE
Featured Listings Available Now
FOR LEASE
12031 Smith Dr.
Huntley, IL 60142
GREAT CORPORATE HQ-FOR LEASE

Huntley-40,000 sq ft masonry industrial building with 20’ ceilings, 8000 sf of high end office on 2 levels with elevator, 10 ton crane, 2 docks, 3 DID’s, 2000 amp 480 Volt power. Minutes from I-90. $6.10 psf NNN.





Brokers: Bruce Kaplan & Kevin Kaplan
FOR LEASE
PRICE REDUCED
650 Terra Cotta Ave.
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
CRYSTAL LAKE RETAIL SPACE FOR LEASE

3- spaces-1065, 1580 and 2808 sq ft, including 2 end caps on heavily traveled Rt 176. $12-16 psf NNN. CAM and taxes are $5.55 psf.









Broker: Mike Deacon
FOR SALE
PRICE REDUCED
804 Roundabout
West Dundee, IL 60118
MULTI-TENANT OFFICE FOR SALE

W. Dundee-5278 sq ft 2 story office building. Second floor leased thru June, 2022 for $2299/mo gross. Full basement. Minutes for I-90. Reduced to $424,900.








Broker: Sharon Glasshof
FOR SALE
PRICE REDUCED
755 Church Rd.
Elgin, IL 60123
28,000 SQ FT NEAR TOLLWAY

Elgin-masonry industrial building on 2 acres. 14 ft ceiling, covered dock, DID, fully sprinklered. Price reduced to $1,299,000 ($46.39 psf). 10% down SBA financing.








Brokers: Bruce Kaplan & Kevin Kaplan
FOR LEASE
268 Randall Rd.
Algonquin, IL 60102
RANDALL ROAD RETAIL

Algonquin-2967 sq ft end cap in outlot in front of Home Depot. Former fitness center. Over 40,300 cars per day traffic count. Prime location for your business. $16 psf NNN.






Broker: Brian Cowell
FOR SALE
Church Rd. & Grant Hwy.
Marengo, IL 60152
11 ACRES COMMERCIAL LAND

Marengo-Divisible 11 acre parcel on Grant Hwy and Church Rds. Zoned commercial. Can be split into two 5-acre parcels. Only $1 per sq ft.







Broker: Heather Schweitzer
Sold And Leased
Featured Articles
Headwinds Turn Into Tailwinds

“Well, this should certainly teach us, should it not, never to repine, never to despair, never to allow the upper lip to unstiffen, but always to remember that, no matter how dark the skies may be, the sun is shining somewhere and will eventually come smiling through.”
—P. G. Wodehouse

The noise-to-signal ratio in economic data isn’t constant. It changes from week to week, month to month. On the face of it, February was a rough month for U.S. economic data. Personal income for the month, released last week, fell by 7% during the month after a 10% rise in January. We should start with a word of caution around these monthly change figures, as they are quite misleading. As they are reported, they aren’t even particularly useful. Let us explain why.
In monthly personal income data, as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, each month’s data is annualized. That includes the one-time $600 checks, which appear to have been almost entirely distributed in January. That made for a massive January, and a nearly as massive decline in February. The chart below instead tracks the level of personal income, both with and without special fiscal stimulus, indexed to 100 back in January 2019.

February also saw poor consumption figures, with spending down 1% during the month (also annualized). This decline reflected a drop in income from checks not hitting accounts like they did in January, but also the severe winter storms that restricted activity throughout the U.S. and particularly the South. This will likely be the worst month for consumption in a while, and we have reason to believe significant rebounds are on the way.

Perhaps a better way to sort through the noise is to just quote how much extra cash households have on hand now than a year ago. Personal saving as of February was $2.4 trillion, a massive $1 trillion increase from a year ago. And most importantly, the total does not yet incorporate the new stimulus checks being sent out in March. This “dry powder” will fuel the economy as it reopens, as we may be starting to see already.

March has been a very different story from February. Restaurant traffic remains the easiest measure of COVID restrictions, and the online reservation service OpenTable helpfully changed its data presentation to show the change in traffic versus 2019 to avoid the wild base effects of comparing to 2020, as most areas had close to zero activity in late March through May 2020. The presentation shows traffic is on the rise.

March mimicked the reopening pace we saw late last summer and should likely make new highs as the pace of vaccinations means a spike in COVID cases isn’t as likely as it was last fall. Hiring averaged nearly 3 million per month in the summer of 2019, with about 1 million per month hired in restaurants, bars and hotels. Another hiring boom is likely on the way.

The Census Bureau’s biweekly "Household Pulse Survey" is showing this as well. Over 15% of the nonretired population was not working in early January, a number that has declined by over 3 percentage points in the few months since. While business changes — i.e., improving business conditions — account for some of the improvement, the share of workers missing work due to COVID has fallen even more sharply, again back to September 2020 lows.

The rate of improvement here is drastic and should eventually become zero, hopefully by the fall or year-end.
Similarly, new claims for unemployment insurance have also started to reflect the improving environment. Initial claims fell to 684,000 last week, the lowest since the onset of the pandemic. While this number remains higher than any prior week dating back to 1982, it is still an improvement. This decline means fewer and fewer people are losing their jobs each week, though there still remains a massive number of workers who haven’t been employed for half a year or more. Those diverging trends are shown below.

These long-term unemployed tend to be the last to return to work, typically not reemployed until after the short-term unemployed return to work. This is perhaps the best picture of the exorbitant amount of slack left in the economy, which will likely remain the case even after a few good months of hiring.
But with this improving backdrop, and with new checks hitting accounts in March, households are at least starting to feel comfortable about their economic situations again. As seen below, also from the federal "Household Pulse Survey," the share of renters at risk of missing rent has declined back under 30%. This is still a highly elevated level, but marks a sharp improvement from December, and should continue as we move deeper into 2021

The massive headwinds of 2020 are turning into tailwinds in 2021, and the economic and labor market rebounds should be sharp. But don’t forget that we’ve got a long way to go to recover what was lost.

CoStar Economy is produced weekly by Robert Calhoun, managing director and senior economist, and Matt Powers, associate director of CoStar Market Analytics in New York City.
THE FINE ART OF PREPARATION, INCLUDING DRAFTING REQUESTS FOR PROPOSAL AND LETTERS OF INTENT

It is often said that our practice as real estate professionals is more art than science. This is most appropriate in drafting both letters of intent and requests for proposal for both buyer and tenant clients. In fact, the time invested in careful and focused drafting of these documents will pay dividends, streamlining the negotiations and final transaction. A few simple but effective points to consider are:

  • Space Planning Checklists: Before any drafting occurs, we have found it extremely helpful to prepare a space planning checklist based on your client's input. Rule one when representing a tenant or buyer is to understand (and qualify) the client's space requirement, so you consider the right properties and not waste time or effort on pursing properties that should have been disqualified earlier. This will save time, effort, and confusion, ensuring that you are moving forward with the client in a join effort to achieve the identified goals. What's more, this space planning process often uncovers many aspects of occupancy that the client has not previously considered.

  • Include and Identify All Appropriate Deadlines: Though terms may vary in your simple letter of intent or request for proposals, be sure to identify all necessary deadlines. Is financing required for a property purchase? Is municipal approved required prior to closing or a tenant taking occupancy? When does your client's present lease term expire? Be vigilant to include and identify all applicable contingencies and deadlines for your client.

  • Agreement to Agree: Keep them that way! Be sure to maintain the non-binding nature of the letter in these first-round proposals. At the same time, provide enough detail to ensure that the client is fully protected sand so that the negotiation addresses the features and amenities the client seeks in the renewal, new lease, or purchase contract.

  • Potentially Binding Terms in LOI's/RFP's: Provisions for confidentiality of negotiations, exclusively of negotiations, and other binding terms should be considered and perhaps included. This services to encourage meaningful negotiations between the parties and create a hierarchy of terms (essential vs. throwaway), as negotiations proceed.

  • Know the Market, Be THE Advocate: As the market conditions change, you should have a sense of what is, or is not, obtainable. In this way, you will manage your client's expectations, both upward or downward.

  • Anticipate The Parties' Best Outcomes: A realistic approach to the transaction is critical. Requests for proposals are your buyer or tenant's wish list, but if the list is too long to too detailed for a relatively small deal, you may discourage property owners from responding at all. Good requests lead to good proposals, good proposals lead to better working relationships, leases, and purchase and sale contracts, which lead to better projects and closing outcomes.

  • Who Drafts the LOI - Broker or Attorney or Both?: While these documents are usually non-binding, brokers are not attorneys. Sometimes a broker-drafter letter of intent can create problems for the purchaser to tenant down the road. Your client's lawyer should be involved in the drafting process for both letters of intent and requests for proposals. As a fallback, a brief review of your draft letter or request by the attorney may not save both time and money, when negotiating the lease or final purchase and sale agreement. The right letter of intent or request for proposals is the cornerstone to a satisfactory transaction. Start on firm ground and the odds are that this will launch your transaction in the right direction.

By Jim Hochman & David Liebman, SIOR
Bruce Bossow x 12 / C: 847-732-3462
Bruce Kaplan x 20 / C: 847-507-1759
Heather Schweitzer x 15 / C: 815-236-9816
Heide Casciaro x 26 / C: 847-774-5660
Joe Billitteri x 21 / C: 847-833-5004
Kevin Kaplan x 13 / C: 309-261-0920
Sharon Glasshof x 14 / C: 847-533-6974
Brian Cowell x 18 / C: 815-529-7890
Mike Deacon x 28 / C: 815-814-6500

 9225 S. IL Route 31
Lake in the Hills, IL 60156
 847-854-2300