Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Flaherty & Collins: Free city provided rental office, for rental unit renting. In Orland Park, so are we next?

Will Jim Deal get a city subsidized tenant, or will space be provided at city hall?

This link.

"This is an interim solution," said Village Manager Paul Grimes. "They've had a significant amount of interest, so they want to go ahead and construct a temporary leasing office."

The village owns the property where the 295-unit building is going up near 143rd Street and LaGrange Road. It is also backing the $63 million project with seller financing of $38 million and project incentives totaling $25 million.

According to village documents, Flaherty & Collins will not be paying rent to the village while temporarily leasing the office space near the project, but it will be responsible for paying utilities.

Karie Friling, the village's director of development services, said so far 180 people have submitted their contact information to Flaherty & Collins through its website asking to be notified when more leasing information is available for Ninety 7 Fifty.

"That's a big number when the roof isn't even on yet," said Trustee Edward Schussler.

The project is on schedule and is expected to be ready for some leasing in the early spring, Friling said. Construction is about one-third complete and crews hope to put a roof on the buildings before winter hits, she said.

By the end of the month, the new leasing office, to be located in the former Creative Paper location, should be staffed with a full-time leasing manager to help interested renters, Friling said.

[...] This week, Friling reiterated the village's trust in the project, explaining that the market continues to be strong for rentals in the Chicago area. She also said the developer has not yet pinpointed exact rent for its units, which will depend on the market and other factors.

"There might be some doom and gloom out there regarding the overall economy, but in the area of rental apartments and particularly new construction, that's the one area that is booming right now," Friling said.

Let us hope there is success here, given the millions of city cash at risk. If there is further city subsidy re an FC office for them to rent their rental space, perhaps at city hall, perhaps sharing the prime square footage now accorded Landform; who might be hired to staff rental efforts, and would Colin McGlone be voting on further subsidy, given the family employment income already booked by his family from Flaherty intersts?