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1100 West Grand: Chicago, IL

Before

Today

After

Description

1100 West Grand is a 21,261 square foot lot which formerly housed an operating gas station in an excellent residential location near downtown Chicago with superb visibility from I-90/94, the primary north/south artery through downtown Chicago. The asset was purchased from a distressed owner, who ran the gas station as well as a towing business from the site. The property had known environmental contamination revolving around a history of leaking underground fuel storage tanks.

Business Plan Summary

» CREOF was able to source the deal off-market through its relationships and purchase the property at a very low basis due to the open environmental issues and the distressed nature of the seller.

» After quantifying the potential environmental risk through substantial due diligence, it was clear that an arbitrage opportunity existed given the market’s perceived value destruction from the open environmental issues and the reality of likely remediation costs.

» Upon acquisition, the environmental remediation effort began immediately whereby three underground storage tanks (UST’s) and the surrounding contaminated soils were removed from the ground, testing was conducted and the appropriate reports submitted to the EPA.

» We have submitted a request to the Illinois EPA for a “no further action” letter and are simultaneously pursuing reimbursement for the cleanup work as part of a state-run program

» The property is currently zoned for manufacturing with a low density. We are in the process of seeking a change in zoning from manufacturing to commercial and are simultaneously seeking an increase in density

» We have designed a 7-story, 42-unit residential building for the site that would include 4,000 sf of retail space on the first floor and underground parking. If successful with the re-zoning effort, we will commence with vertical development once market conditions warrant new construction.

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