Crain's Chicago Business

JACKSON PARK: A PGA-level golf course near the Obama Center? PAGE 3

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20 YEARS AFTER 9/11,

A NEW CRISIS LOOMS FOR WILLIS TOWER The city’s tallest and most recognizable building is staring down a leasing challenge that could rival the one it struggled with for almost a decade after the terrorist attacks BY DANNY ECKER

pall over the downtown office market, pushing many companies to scale back their workspace footprints and driving up the vacancy rate to an all-time high.

While no landlord is immune from the forces of a public health crisis that has damaged the vibrancy of the central See WILLIS on Page 27

DANNY ECKER

IT TOOK SEARS TOWER close to a decade to shake the effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the eyes of office users. Twenty years later, Willis Tower is facing an entirely different crisis that raises an equally unnerving question for its owners about what lies ahead.

The rise of remote work sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has cast a

Treating burnout in the COVID ward

Loop workers rally restaurants to reopen As return dates stretch out, the relationship between eateries and nearby offices comes to the forefront

Hospitals scramble to address the mental health crisis among workers as the pandemic rages on A few free counseling sessions aren’t enough for front-line health care workers dealing with the unprecedented stresses of COVID-19.

As the pandemic grinds away at the mental health of nurses, doctors and others who care for patients, the standard offerings

BY ALLY MAROTTI JOHN R. BOEHM

BY STEPHANIE GOLDBERG

of hospitals’ employee assistance programs are proving inadequate amid rising burnout and turnover. So several hospitals are offering more practical supports to ease the psychological and emotional strain on workers expected to perform daily heroics.

Some provide additional child care services, while others have taken steps to reduce the admin-

Dr. Laura Zimmermann istrative and paperwork burdens on overworked clinicians. Many of the organizations also allow See BURNOUT on Page 28

For most of the summer, it didn’t make financial sense for 90th Meridian Kitchen & Bar to reopen. Office occupancy in the Loop was still too low, so the restaurant pushed back its reopening date again and again.

Then the calls started coming in.

When will you reopen? callers asked. We’re coming back to work

soon and need somewhere for happy hour, they said. Some calls were more fervent, says Scott Weiner, co-owner of the Fifty/50 Restaurant Group, which owns 90th Meridian. We don’t want to see all our old haunts go, they said. How can we help?

Weiner heard from bankers and lawyers, from former See RESTAURANTS on Page 8

NEWSPAPER l VOL. 44, NO. 36 l COPYRIGHT 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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JOE CAHILL

YOUR VIEW

For local leaders, writing off the rest of 2021 would be a mistake. PAGE 4

Recognition on Labor Day is nice, but action is what counts.

PAGE 10

9/3/21 4:05 PM

2 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Census data points to one inevitable conclusion

I

South Side) and Latino growth that appears to be occurring all over the place but does not appear as overwhelmingly concentrated as it has been in the past in neighborhoods such as Humboldt Park and Pilsen/ Little Village.

The new figures come from an analysis of the 2020 census for the City Council’s Latino caucus conducted by demographer/consultant Frank Calabrese. Some top-line conclusions immediately leap out.

The clearest is that the central area of the city alEXPECT A POWER SHUFFLE UNLIKE most certainly is going to a new ward. You never ANYTHING WE’VE SEEN IN DECADES. get say never in politics, but it will be very, very difficult to ignore mathematical reality. they have and hopefully add to it.

Of the four wards with the biggest Now that some more detailed population gains in the past decade, results of the 2020 census are startevery one is mostly in or immeing to trickle out, the battle lines are diately adjacent to the downtown becoming clearer. The story is the area: the 42nd, 3rd, 2nd and 27th rise of the central area of Chicago wards. In fact, those wards collecas a booming population center in tively gained 54,000 net residents the past decade, the simultaneous during the past decade—almost decline of many African American exactly the 55,000 that the average neighborhoods (especially on the f math is destiny, then a new set of numbers shows Chicago is in for a potential realignment of political power unlike anything it’s seen in decades.

I wrote a few weeks back about some of the backdrop to what’s about to occur as the city prepares for the upcoming reapportionment of Chicago wards. How, for instance, all factions are lining up top legal and cartographic talent in an effort to at least keep what power

new ward will need when the mapmakers are done.

Some may be inclined to try to dilute that by grabbing portions of that downtown population and shifting it to other, more outlying wards. Good luck with that. The next outlying wards with a combined population gain of roughly 19,000 residents all abut those downtown wards: the 4th, 43rd and 44th. As 27th Ward Ald. Walter Burnett puts it, “I’m not going to give up” Black residents in his ward to help build population of some people-short wards elsewhere. If anything goes, he adds, it will be part of his largely white east end, the portion of his ward that’s part of downtown.

Now, despite what Burnett said, I don’t yet have detailed demographic breakdowns ward by ward. But based on the 2000 census and later American Community Survey data, it’s clear that the only predominantly Black wards that gained people overall are either downtown (the 3rd and 27th) or on the

GREG HINZ ON POLITICS

ulation is more scattered than it was, with, for instance, the heavily Latino 15th Ward losing people.

That could make it difficult for that group to lock in those gains for more wards.

Keep an eye, too, on whether Mayor Lori Lightfoot stays out of the remap dance or gets involved, if only to punish some of her enemies. Such as Ald. Ray Lopez from the aforementioned 15th Ward, which now is roughly 6,500 people short of the citywide ward average.

Or Ald. Tony Beale, 9th, who will need to pick up about 9,000 people from somewhere. Will the mayor help or hurt them as they try to find the bodies needed to survive?

Those are just the highlights.

Expect lots of backroom dealing to come—even by City Hall standards.

reviving South Side lakefront (the 3rd, 4th and 5th). Interior wards, especially on the South Side, each lost thousands of people in the last decade. Most were intentionally kept smaller than average in the last remapping 10 years ago in an effort to help Black aldermen retain their numbers. It’s far from clear that can happen again.

That positions Latinos as the big potential winner this remap cycle.

Though ward-by-ward and censustract-by-census-tract demographics have not yet been made public, the citywide figures indicate Latinos gained by about 41,000 in the last decade, enough to move them ahead of Blacks as the city’s second-largest population group and closing in on whites. However, there are indications that pop-

A strong clean-energy bill is now within grasp Ethics reform flopped. Redistricting turned out at least as bad—no, worse—than even Republicans and gerrymandering critics had feared.

Yet all may not be lost. The socalled clean-energy bill, the third piece of unfinished business state lawmakers addressed when they returned to Springfield last week, might actually deliver, of all things, a chance at cleaner energy.

Along with the closure of coal and natural gas plants, the bill could even deliver good jobs and a small measure of accountability for Commonwealth Edison. And if that happens, it will be thanks in part to some stubborn but effective leadership from Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

To get to this point, Pritzker has needed to compromise. For example, Pritzker originally wanted to close all the state’s coal plants by 2030. As we stand today, the target is now 2045.

And he and other negotiators likely will need to respond to a plausible threat to shut down the Byron nuclear plant beginning Sept. 13—with the Dresden plant slated to follow. Exelon indeed has dictated the timeline. The deadline was an exercise of power, and not the kind that lights homes and factories.

Yet as it happens, that Sept.

13 target date might just work to the benefit of Pritzker, environmentalists and good-government advocates. Deadlines have a way of motivating all parties to get to yes, and Sept. 13 gives them a week to do it.

Exelon has plenty to like. In a version of the bill that passed the Senate on Aug. 31, it secured a commitment for ratepayer subsidies totaling $700 million over five years that would go toward keeping Byron, Dresden, Braidwood and LaSalle County nuclear plants running.

Business interests and custom-

P002_CCB_20210906.indd 2

ers disapprove of the subsidies, which in fact do seem excessive.

And previously promised “accountability measures” for the utility are wanting. But negotiators trying to reach a deal seem willing to pay those prices.

As regards the rest of the package, Pritzker is in a decent negotiating position. He has cast his lot with the environmentalists and so far is backing his ethics and clean-energy rhetoric with action.

The Legislature seemed close to a deal during the marathon Aug. 31 talks. But then Pritzker’s office issued a statement saying the bill needs to “lead with ethics and transparency.”

Contrast that firm stand with Pritzker’s handling of ethics reform during the spring session. When a push from the governor would have mattered, Pritzker steadfastly refused to lay out his own ethics agenda, stating that was the Legislature’s job.

This time, in the early days of a re-election campaign, the governor is deploying the language of leadership. And the measure of his commitment will come in the final language of the clean-energy bill.

Whatever ethics and accountability provisions survive should be gauged against the checklist Pritzker’s office distributed as negotiations heated up last April: prohibiting utilities from converting ratepayer funds into charitable contributions that curry favor with politicians, for example. And requiring the Illinois Commerce Commission to investigate whether ratepayer funds went toward the $200 million penalty in ComEd’s deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.

In the end, the controversial Prairie State coal-fired plant in southern Illinois will be the litmus test of Pritzker’s commitment to clean energy.

From the start, the Pritzker administration has pushed for a phaseout of coal-fired power during the years leading up to the closure. But Prairie State’s backers pushed back. They wanted to keep burning, full bore, until the plant’s official shutdown nearly a quarter century from now.

And besides the usual crowd of industry cohorts and labor interests backing the plant’s position, Prairie State also was buttressed by dozens of municipalities that are financial backers, and also customers, of the huge coal plant.

If Pritzker does stand firm, there

DAVID GREISING ON GOVERNMENT

may be political costs in those communities.

Bottom line, though, a strong clean-energy bill would be good for Pritzker and good for the state.

And just such a bill—including true measures of reform and finally shuttering Prairie State, a major coal plant in Springfield and other sources of carbon pollution—is

within the governor’s grasp.

With Exelon’s Sept. 13 deadline looming, Pritzker might just get the job done.

David Greising is president and CEO of Chicago-based investigative watchdog Better Government Association.

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 3

TEEING IT UP IN JACKSON PARK Backers see new hope for a PGA-level golf course near the Obama Center

BY A.D. QUIG

AS GOLF ENTHUSIASTS TUNED IN to this year’s BMW Championship, backers of a plan to turn two golf courses on Chicago’s South Side into a Tiger Woods-designed course still hope to host future PGA tournaments. But they face daunting hazards.

With the Obama Presidential Center finally ready to break ground in Jackson Park this fall, supporters of combining and upgrading two nearby municipal golf courses see an opportunity to push their plan forward.

JOHN R. BOEHM

See GOLF on Page 30

How an ad campaign is faring in wooing techies to Chicago

U of C turbocharges its quantum quest The university plans a big expansion in pursuit of the technological grail

Early data shows that local tech booster P33 has reached 1.2 million people with its new advertising campaign, and 50 are making plans to move here

BY KATHERINE DAVIS Earlier this year, Benjamin Kinga was looking to move out of Nashville, Tenn., to pursue a career in a robust tech hub.

He got a remote software engineering job at New York-based software startup Pandium. Because of the position’s geographic flexibility, Kinga explored alternatives to New York rent.

“My job is in New York, and it makes sense for me to live in New York, but the rent is very high, and while I’m paid well, I’m not paid that well,” said Kinga, 24.

After looking at places like Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas, Kinga found himself moving to Chicago this summer after coming into contact with

P003_CCB_20210906.indd 3

P33, a local tech organization that Penny Pritzker and serial entrepreneur Chris Gladwin launched in 2018 to boost Chicago’s reputation as a tech hub.

“The reason why I reached out to P33 was because I wanted to get connected to the tech community,” Kinga said.

Since May, P33 has been running ads, from Facebook to billboards in San Francisco, aimed at persuading workers in big tech hubs to come to Chicago.

The ad campaign, called “Come Back to Move Forward,” is targeting tech workers across the country with Chicago connections—like those who grew up or went to college in the area— as well as those interested in Chicago’s tech scene in general.

BY JOHN PLETZ

Benjamin Kinga P33 set out to target 100,000 tech workers in San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Austin and Washington, D.C. To date, it has reached more than 1.2 million tech professionals with its ads. Nearly 400 have made contact with the organization, expressing interest in moving to Chicago for a tech career, and about 50 have told P33 they are making plans to move, according to P33 and Rise Interactive data provided to Crain’s.

P33 declined to disclose the budget for its ad campaign but See P33 on Page 29

The University of Chicago is doubling down on its investment in quantum computing research in hopes of putting itself and Chicago at the forefront of the next big innovation in technology.

It plans to break ground next year on a building larger than the Eckhardt Research Center, a cutting-edge facility that cost $300 million when it was built in 2015.

U of C also aims to double the quantum faculty of about 20 over the next decade.

“We are at capacity,” says Juan de Pablo, vice president for national laboratories, science strategy, innovation and global initiatives. “We have resources to recruit more people. We need more space. We need a new building. We need it fast.”

He won’t say how much it will

cost. “The plan is almost done.

We still need some of the money, but it’s looking very positive.”

U of C entered the global race to use quantum physics to reinvent computing a decade ago. The idea is to create machines that can handle exponentially larger amounts of data faster and more securely than we can now—making it possible to more accurately simulate and understand the most complicated phenomena, from cancer to global warming.

U of C’s aim is “for the city of Chicago to become the capital of the world for quantum,” de Pablo says.

It’s a stretch goal that would boost U of C’s fortunes, both in prestige and, potentially, revenue from innovation and research. It also could create companies, jobs and wealth seen in places such as Silicon Valley and Boston, where other technologies took root.

“Quantum is going to be the next digital revolution,” says Tom See QUANTUM on Page 29

9/3/21 4:20 PM

4 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

ON BUSINESS

2021 ain’t over till it’s over have the resources they need to As the humidity breaks and earn repeat business. kids return to school, thoughts Abbott Laboratories and inevitably turn to next year. After Walgreens Boots Alliance. Two a topsy-turvy 2021, which saw of the area’s biggest companies COVID cases rise, fall and rise have supernumeraries in their again, many are only too happy to C-suites. Medical products look ahead. maker Abbott and pharmacy Companies have a practical chain Walgreens both named reason to focus on the future: new CEOs without sending the September traditionally kicks old ones home. Miles White at off annual budgeting. Planning Abbott and Stefano Pessina at ahead is essential, of course, but Walgreens stuck around in the writing off the rest of 2021 would ill-defined role of “executive be a mistake. Finishing strong is chairman.” important for its own sake and Retaining former CEOs in an to set the stage for a good year in ambiguous capacity for an inde2022. Here’s a list of fourth-quarterminate period of time raises ter goals for some Chicago-area questions about who’s really in businesses and governments. charge. Their continued presence All local companies. Business in what appears to be an execuand the economy won’t return to tive position undermines their normal until COVID-19 is under successors’ authority and dilutes control. Vaccines have proven to be powerfully effective against the accountability for company performance. What’s more, they virus that has upended comsaddle companies with another merce for the past 18 months. Yet hefty pay package. vaccination rates remain frustratThat’s no way to run a multiingly low, allowing COVID to mubillion-dollar public company. tate and fuel a new surge in cases By the end of this year, Abbott that threatens to deflate business and Walgreens should at least say activity in the coming months. when their executive chairmen Businesses are in a unique will leave. position to prevent a rerun of Gov. J.B. Pritzker. In coming months, PritzWRITING OFF THE REST OF THE ker will have a chance to vault Illinois ahead in the YEAR WOULD BE A MISTAKE. fast-growing electric-vehicle industry. U.S. Sen. Richard 2020. They can beat back the bug Durbin recently said Illinois is by requiring employees to get in talks with Korean technology vaccinated. The threat of losing a giant Samsung, which needs a job is a powerful incentive to get location for its first EV battery vaccinated. plant in the U.S. Pritzker should Some local companies, make the strongest possible pitch including United Airlines and a for the prize. few large hospitals, are requiring Illinois already has a footvaccines for all employees. It’s hold in EV production. Amatime for all companies to follow zon-backed Rivian is building suit, starting now. electric trucks in Normal, and McDonald’s. The burger giant’s Lion Electric plans to produce big second-half initiative for 2021 plug-in school buses in Joliet. is the launch of a long-awaited What Illinois lacks is an EV batcustomer loyalty program. Rivals tery plant. That’s a big gap. Battersuch as Starbucks have shown ies are the most innovative and how lucrative loyalty programs lucrative segment of the industry. can be, and McDonald’s wants to Without batteries, Illinois could replicate their success. be a net loser over the next couple The question is whether Mcof decades as electric-powered Donald’s restaurants can deliver vehicles supplant the internal the level of service that inspires combustion models that have loyalty. Customers won’t come created wealth and jobs in the back if McDonald’s can’t fill state for generations. orders fast enough. Meeting that Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Lightexpectation is getter harder for foot has to stop carjackings and McDonald’s franchisees strugexpressway shootings, which gling with a labor shortage. CEO have surged across the city this Chris Kempczinski has acknowlyear. These chilling, high-profile edged a slowdown at undercrimes broadcast the message staffed outlets. that people in Chicago are at Company-owned stores have risk of random, deadly violence apparently solved the problem anytime and anywhere. That’s with pay hikes. That solution may economic poison, especially for not be financially viable for all a city just starting to shake off the franchisees, who operate 95% of impact of COVID-19 on busiMcDonald’s restaurants. The loyness and employment. People, alty program will succeed or fail companies and jobs will vanish based on customer experience at if Lightfoot can’t make Chicago franchised outlets. McDonald’s streets and expressways safe. should make sure franchisees

P004_CCB_20210906.indd 4

The blue economy: Why our future depends on it Our water and waterways are economic assets—and as consumers, we’re all market makers. Here’s what you can do now to protect your investment.

BY EMILY DRAKE AND TODD CONNOR Chicago Comes Back is a weekly series on ChicagoBusiness.com providing leadership insights to help your business move forward, written by leadership consultants Emily Drake and Todd Connor.

Drake and Connor facilitate Crain’s Leadership Academy. Drake is a licensed therapist, owner of the Collective Academy and a leadership coach. Connor is the founder of Bunker Labs and the Collective Academy and is also a leadership consultant.

Check out previous installments at ChicagoBusiness.com/comesback.

As part of our continuing series exploring Chicago’s economic recovery, we look at the opportunities presented by the city’s access to Lake Michigan, fresh water and the opportunity to grow the blue economy. We talked with Alaina Harkness, executive director of Current, about her vision for growing the economy and preserving a critical natural resource.

TODD CONNOR: Alaina, thanks for talking with Emily and me today. For our readers, can you tell us what Current is, and what drew you to this work?

ALAINA HARKNESS: I’d love to.

Current is a nonprofit innovation hub and catalyst for better, cleaner water. Our mission is to grow an inclusive blue economy, accelerate innovation and solve pressing water challenges. Current’s work sits at the intersection of two defining existential questions, for Chicago but also cities all around the world: How can we generate economic opportunity for more people and reduce inequality, and how can we exponentially increase the speed and scale of our strategies to address climate change? Water innovation is part of the answer to both.

EMILY DRAKE: Water innovation is honestly something I’ve never considered, but I do know that I never get tired of biking the lakefront, so on some level I both appreciate Lake Michigan and take it for granted. What more do we need to understand about the lake, here in Chicago, and the unique asset and opportunity it represents?

AH: We need to understand that our water and waterways are economic assets as well as environmental ones. Water has historically attracted residents and commerce to our region. As we plan for a future where there may be increasing demands for these resources, we need to think about how we value, promote, invest in and protect them.

And you’re not alone: Many Chicagoans take Lake Michigan for granted—primarily as a source of stable, high-quality drinking water. That’s a problem because it isn’t an infinite resource. And some Chicagoans

ISTOCK

JOE CAHILL

CHICAGO COMES BACK

CONSUMER AND INVESTOR DEMAND IS POWERFUL: USE YOUR VOICE AND YOUR DOLLARS TO SHOW THAT YOU VALUE CHICAGO’S WATER AND THE WORLD’S. think our rivers are too polluted to use. That is a problem, too, because right now, our rivers are in a recovery state, and to continue the progress we need more people to invest in that recovery.

TC: You mentioned this, but can you expound on what you mean by the blue economy? Where are we succeeding in building it and what opportunities exist?

AH: Put simply, the blue economy is made up of the people and companies developing water technologies and services—researchers, entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 companies—and the many industries that use them to manage water in their work: utilities, manufacturers, food and beverage companies, agricultural producers and so on. Here in Chicago, it includes our diverse industrial base, world-class research universities and national labs, talent, and our growing startup and venture-capital ecosystem. Other cities, like San Diego; states like Nevada; and even countries like Israel and Singapore have made sustained investments that have resulted in measurable growth in com-

mercialization, exports and jobs around water usage. We can do the same in Chicago and Illinois, but will do so with a clear focus on inclusive growth and a blueprint for a best-in-the-world inclusive blue economy.

ED: It sounds like we all have a role to play on a large scale, but also as individuals participating in an ecosystem. What do ordinary citizens like us need to know and, more importantly, do to support the blue economy?

AH: We’re all blue economy market makers because we’re all water consumers with a common investment in our water future.

Consumer and investor demand is powerful: Use your voice and your dollars to show that you value Chicago’s water and the world’s. Ask your employer—or, if you’re an investor, the companies in your portfolio—what is being done to address water risks. Understand your water footprint and take steps to reduce it, not just the water we drink and use in our homes, but the water that produces our food, manufactures our goods, generates energy and more. Personal consumption decisions—from installing WaterSmart fixtures and appliances to eating less meat and dairy—reduce water use and can save energy and money, too.

Ask property management about water and energy practices in the buildings where you work and live. All the water we’ll ever have is already here on the planet. It’s our job to demand better for it.

9/3/21 10:49 AM

MORE THAN EVER, OUR CHILDREN NEED US. Because of COVID-19, hunger has more than doubled. And children are particularly at risk; one in three households with children is facing hunger. As job loss and the continued economic downturn push more people to the end of their resources, many families are having to choose between paying bills or buying food.

In four decades of feeding our community, we have never faced a need so great.

WE NEED YOU. DONATE NOW chicagosfoodbank.org/givenow

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6 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

NOMINATION PROGRAMS

to honor any deserving colleague

MILITARY VETERAN EXECUTIVES

Highlighting accomplished military veteran executives in the Chicago area who are serving in a senior level role at his or her company and have made significant contributions to advancing the issues that affect veterans in the workplace.

Holmgren, 61, is CEO of LanzaTech, a Skokie-based firm that uses bacteria to recycle carbon emissions from steel mills, oil refineries and chemical manufacturers, as well as solids such as municipal waste, into fuels and chemicals that become consumer and commercial products. She maintains an apartment close to the office so she doesn’t need a car when she’s here. The home she shares with her husband in Colorado generates 65 percent of its electrical power from solar panels. By Laura Bianchi

What’s the coolest thing about your industry?

We are converting pollution into fabric for Lululemon, perfume for Coty, laundry detergent and sustainable aviation fuel so we don’t have to dig fresh carbon out of the ground.

>

That sounds satisfying.

I’m not going to sleep well until we do more. The whole world is on fire, and we need to move faster to solve our pollution problem.

>

NOMINATION DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 24 PUBLICATION DATE: NOVEMBER 8

Jennifer Holmgren

>

2021

THE TAKEAWAY

How did you end up in tech?

I fell in love with the U.S. space program when I was growing up in Colombia and became very excited about math and science. Then, lo and behold, we moved to California when I was 9, the year that the U.S. landed a man on the moon.

<

Worst advice you ever got?

That it is stupid to build a plant in China because it’s a hard place to do business and they steal your ideas. China is a great place. Compared to Europe, building a plant in China takes one-third the time.

>

2021

How did the move change your life?

Would I have gotten the same science education 40 years ago in Colombia, or my Ph.D.? Probably not.

>

GEN X LEADERS IN ACCOUNTING, CONSULTING AND LAW

2021

BLACK LEADERS AND EXECUTIVES

Nominate at ChicagoBusiness.com/NotableNoms

P006_CCB_20210906.indd 6

How did they react?

The entire room of men just stared at me like, why are we talking about earrings?

>

Crain’s Notable Black Executives will recognize black leaders in the Chicago area who have demonstrated the ability to advance their industries, places of work, and communities.

An embarrassing moment?

During a meeting at (­petroleum tech firm) UOP with all men, we were talking about the metallurgy requirements for a corrosive application. I mentioned some titanium earrings I saw at a craft fair. Why couldn’t we make a reactor out of that? How expensive could it be if they use it for earrings? Ha!

>

NOMINATION DEADLINE: OCTOBER 1 PUBLICATION DATE: DECEMBER 13

How so?

Women don’t have pockets, and I prefer a backpack to a purse. With my watch I can pay by credit card, navigate the airport or board a train in Japan without opening anything.

>

Top Chicago area accountants, consultants and attorneys, between 40-55 years of age, who are serving in a senior-level role at his or her company and have made significant contributions to advancing their fields.

>

NOMINATION DEADLINE: OCTOBER 1 PUBLICATION DATE: NOVEMBER 22

What is your favorite piece of tech?

My Apple watch. It’s a girl device.

A favorite charity?

My husband and I adopt greyhounds, and we support Grey2k USA, an organization dedicated to shutting down dog tracks worldwide. They’re so abused, it’s horrific.

9/3/21 10:46 AM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 7

The restaurant’s landlord is testing investor appetite for real estate in the bustling Rush Street corridor

BY DANNY ECKER The family that owns the Gold Coast building housing Italian restaurant Carmine’s Bar & Lounge has put the property up for sale for the third time in a decade, hoping to find a buyer that wants to bet on downtown’s post-COVID 19 recovery.

The Chicago office of Jones Lang LaSalle is marketing the two-story property at 1043 N. Rush St., which the brokers expect to fetch more than $25 million. The offering comes almost six years after JLL sought more than $30 million for the building but could not finalize a deal to sell it.

Now the longtime owner Marienthal family has put the 11,213-square-foot building back on the market in a test of investor appetite for real estate near the intersection of Rush and State streets, well-known as a hot spot of restaurants, bars, hotels and shopping. A sale at more than $2,200 per square foot would demonstrate the resiliency of the Gold Coast stretch amid a pandemic that has damaged much of downtown’s liveliness.

Like it did in 2015, JLL is marketing the property as a redevelop-

ment play. The existing building, which has 80 feet of frontage facing Rush Street, could be demolished and replaced with a new development totaling more than 87,000 square feet under the property’s current zoning, with possible new uses such as retail, a hotel, apartments or condos, according to JLL. “We view it as an unparalleled location in one of Chicago’s most prestigious and sought-after neighborhoods,” said JLL Senior Managing Director Brian Shanfeld, who is marketing the property along with Dan Reynolds, director of capital markets. “There’s definitely additional value to be unlocked through densifying the site.”

REMAINING LEASE

Carmine’s, which opened in 1994 at the Rush Street location, has less than three years left on its lease, according to sources familiar with the agreement. The remaining lease term provides a buyer with short-term income as a runway to prepare a redevelopment, Shanfeld said.

The Marienthal family first struck a deal to sell the building in 2012 for $18 million to a group of investors that included Carmine’s owner

Alex Dana, who also owns Chicago-based Rosebud Restaurants.

Dana and a pair of investor partners matched an initial purchase offer by Chicago-based investor Newcastle for the property.

But Dana’s partners subsequently filed a lawsuit alleging Dana was trying to back out of their deal and team up with Newcastle. The case was dismissed in 2013 and the property was never sold.

A Rosebud spokeswoman declined to comment and Dana couldn’t be reached.

More recently, Newcastle has been working through a community review process and recently filed a zoning application to redevelop a shuttered Barnes & Noble just north of Carmine’s at 1130 N. State St. into a 29-story apartment tower.

David Marienthal, a member of the family that owns the building, did not respond to a request for comment. He is a relative of the late Oscar and George Marienthal, brothers who operated Mister Kelly’s nightclub in the 1950s and ’60s in the building across the street from Carmine’s, which now houses Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse.

Mister Kelly’s closed in 1975. A documentary film chronicling the story of the nightclub called “Live at Mister Kelly’s” is scheduled to premiere this month at the Siskel Film Center.

JONES LANG LASALLE

Carmine’s Gold Coast property back up for sale

Carmine’s Bar & Lounge at 1043 N. Rush St.

Royal Bank offers commercial loans with attractive rates and terms.

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9/3/21 2:31 PM

8 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Relationships between Loop restaurants and nearby offices come to forefront RESTAURANTS from Page 1

P008_CCB_20210906.indd 8

Brad Alaoui, managing partner at Roanoke, has been reaching out to his biggest dine-in spenders asking when they’ll be back in the office in full force.

THE BERGHOFF PHOTOS

INTERDEPENDENCE

As the delta variant forces offices to push back return dates, the mutual interdependence of Loop restaurants and nearby offices has been laid bare. Without more workers in the Loop, some restaurants remain closed, and others will keep hours limited.

But workers won’t come back to the office without a thriving Loop lunch and happy hour scene.

“It’s kind of like a game of chicken in many ways,” says Stafford Romero McKay, vice president of marketing at Fooda, a Chicago-based company that facilitates restaurant pop-ups in office buildings.

For the past few months, the lack of lunch options in the Loop has driven Fooda’s discussions with companies and potential customers, he says. Fooda worked with building management to open a storefront location in the 100 N. LaSalle St. building in June, filling in a spot vacated by Pret A Manger. There’s another pop-up coming to a retail location in the lobby of the CME building at 10 S. Wacker Drive. The additional options help motivate employees to come in, says Romero McKay. “As they start to bring people back, there aren’t options around that are getting people excited about coming in, so they’re calling us and saying, ‘How can you guys help with this?’ ” Employers are also more frequently footing the bill for employees to buy lunch at Fooda, or subsidizing $5 per person, Romero McKay says.

Morningstar is one of them.

Since June, the financial services firm has offered a lunch stipend through Fooda for employees who choose to work in the office, says spokesman Landon Hudson. Additionally, Brookfield Properties has long worked with Fooda and offered a daily $3 subsidy to employees in its office at 350 N. Orleans St. It reinstituted that perk when employees returned to work, says Alberico Lopez, director of conference and office services. When

JOHN R. BOEHM

regulars who work at the nearby Federal Reserve and elsewhere in the surrounding Financial District. Those requests became the push 90th Meridian needed to finally reopen its doors last month, even as Loop office occupancy continued to languish.

“It just takes a couple happy hour parties a week for us to break even,” Weiner says. “Seeing that we’ve had inquiries and a few parties booked will be . . . enough to make the numbers work.”

Office workers and executives are taking it upon themselves to rally Loop restaurants to reopen or extend their hours. Some take to social media, calling for favorite sandwiches to return to streamlined menus. Some executives call restaurant operators directly, in search of a place for happy hour or business lunches. Building managers rush to fill spaces vacated by restaurants.

The Berghoff and Adams Street Brewery reopened in July. Right: Pete Berghoff, fourth-generation owner, with his parents, Herman and Jan Berghoff. management began talking about returning to the office, they were concerned about whether employees would have lunch options.

To be sure, many of the Chicago business community’s favorite Loop lunch spots reopened earlier this year. There’s the Dearborn in Block 37, the Gage on Michigan Avenue, Luke’s Lobster by City Hall—the list goes on. A select few never closed. Just north of the river, options abound as well.

But not all were unscathed. Petterino’s is still closed, set to reopen later this year under new management. Trattoria No. 10 on Dearborn Street shut down permanently.

Less than a block away, Rosebud Prime remains temporarily closed.

Fast-casual options also took a beating: Every Pret A Manger in the Loop went out of business.

Loop restaurants that have reopened also face a tight labor market and supply shortages, and many remain partially closed and are operating with reduced hours. Some close early or don’t open at all on Mondays and Fridays, when people tend

to work from home.

The Berghoff and Adams Street Brewery reopened in July, but the Berghoff’s cafe, which focuses on to-go lunch orders, remains closed. Regulars would come to the cafe three or four times a week, says fourth-generation owner Pete Berghoff. He doesn’t expect it to reopen anytime soon.

He’s gotten requests about extending hours, he says. Some call to ask when the cafe will reopen or tweet about their longing for its Reuben sandwich. But Berghoff is watching office occupancies.

OPTIMISM

Office occupancy in the Loop was at 36% in July, according to the Chicago Loop Alliance. Berghoff says that feels optimistic now, with the rise of the delta variant. His revenue is down roughly 80% from 2019 levels—down even from earlier this summer.

“There was a lot of enthusiasm to come back after Labor Day, but I don’t see that right now,” he says.

Berghoff is sitting in an empty alcove of his restaurant on a recent

Friday afternoon, looking around at the lunch crowd. He doesn’t recognize a soul. A few dozen people are peppered throughout the joint, many of them out-of-towners. Pre-pandemic, the restaurant would have been flush during the Friday lunch rush, and at least half the crowd would have been regulars who worked office jobs nearby, Berghoff says.

In a corner of the bar, Martin Murray is the only one in sight with a laptop. It was the real estate broker’s second time back at the Berghoff since it reopened. When you do business in the Loop, you need places like the Berghoff, he says—places that clients know and it’s easy to get a seat at, places where he can pop in and work for an hour instead of trucking back to his Gold Coast office between meetings. “It is vital,” he says. “I do think that.”

At Roanoke a few blocks away, managing partner Brad Alaoui has been reaching out to his biggest dine-in spenders—companies such as JPMorgan Chase and holding company Marmon Hold-

ings—asking when they’ll be back in the office in full force. The answers he gets have become a common refrain: The date has been pushed back.

“The minute people get comfortable to come back to the office, things will improve tremendously,” he says. He was just hoping that would happen sooner. Lunch business is still a fraction of what it used to be, and it’s worse on Mondays and Fridays.

Still, Roanoke has remained open throughout the pandemic, serving mostly guests at nearby hotels. Linda Muller, senior executive assistant at Marmon, says she was relieved each time she got a communication from Roanoke during the past year and half, assuring her it was surviving.

She was relieved, also, when she had to schedule the first big executives meeting in some time and knew exactly whom to call to bring lunch.

“It felt like, ‘Oh, thank God, I can order some food and have some decent food brought in for the executives,” she says. “It felt good.”

9/3/21 4:03 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 9

Amazon’s challenge: Finding thousands of workers As construction wraps up on massive fulfillment centers in Markham and Matteson, the e-commerce giant needs to recruit 6,000 employees for them. It won’t be easy.

Amazon’s hiring managers in Markham and Matteson are going to have a very busy fall. Their job: finding 6,000 people to work at two huge fulfillment centers set to open in October.

Amazon made a splash in June 2020 when it announced its decision to open the warehouses in the two suburbs south of Chicago, part of a broader push to expand its distribution network here and around the country.

Now, with construction wrapping up, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant is getting ready to recruit people to work in the fulfillment centers. Hiring begins Sept.

10, 30 days before Amazon plans to open the facilities.

Amazon is offering a starting wage of $16 per hour at the Markham and Matteson properties. All new full-time employees receive health insurance and paid maternity leave and are eligible to enroll in a 401(k) plan with company match.

Is that good enough to attract 6,000 qualified people in the area?

Amazon is about to find out.

“It’s definitely challenging hiring

to that scale,” said Tarun Aggarwal, general manager of the Markham warehouse, at 15924 Western Ave. The labor market has moved against Amazon since it announced its plans for the two fulfillment centers, as the COVID-19 pandemic was crushing the local economy. But the economy has bounced back, with the Illinois unemployment rate dropping to 7.1% in July, down from its peak of 16.5% in April 2020 but still above its prepandemic level of about 3.5%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Moreover, the labor force participation rate remains low, meaning fewer people in Illinois are looking for work than before the pandemic. That’s one reason Markham Mayor Roger Agpawa thinks Amazon will have difficulty filling all of its openings quickly.

Yet he’s enthusiastic about Amazon and expects a big economic boost from its $300 million fulfillment center in Markham. The project received a tax incentive package worth $322 million, according to the Better Government Association.

Agpawa is counting on a return on that investment that will include more business formation, more

housing and population gains.

The village of Markham, with a 2020 population of about 11,700, has been losing residents over the past decade or so, and nearly a fifth of its population lives below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

STAGGERING PACE

Amazon has been opening new warehouses and hiring workers in Chicago at a staggering pace over the past year or so. The company is expanding across the country to meet surging demand for products sold on its website and to shorten delivery times for its customers.

The company added 15,000 employees in Illinois last year, with plans to hire thousands more as it opens new warehouses in places like Waukegan, Huntley, Gage Park and Humboldt Park. Amazon has likely passed Advocate Aurora Health as the largest private-sector employer in the Chicago area.

As Amazon has expanded, its critics have become more vocal, raising concerns about working conditions in its warehouses and the environmental impact of all the trucks and vans that deliver its goods. The company also has at-

AMAZON

BY ALBY GALLUN

Amazon plans to open this fulfillment center in Matteson. tracted the attention of union organizers, though it defeated an organizing campaign at an Alabama warehouse in April.

Working in an Amazon warehouse is a good job, but it’s not for everyone, Agpawa said. It’s physical labor well suited for younger workers, he said.

“You’re going to get a reasonable amount of turnover, but that’s how young people are,” he said.

The company’s plans to hire 6,000 people in Markham and Matteson come as a bit of a surprise, representing a big increase from its initial hiring projection of 2,000 last summer. An Amazon spokeswoman didn’t provide a complete explanation for the change, saying only that the company finalized its hiring plans

based on its current needs.

Aggarwal, meanwhile, has been here before, being in charge of opening a similar fulfillment center in Oklahoma City last year.

To recruit employees, Amazon is stressing that its warehouse jobs include opportunities for advancement. One of Aggarwal’s subordinates, Arthur Harrison, started out a warehouse worker in 2015 in the Lexington, Ky., area.

Today, he’s a senior operations manager at the Markham fulfillment center who will oversee as many as a 1,000 workers there at peak times.

“My story is not unique within Amazon,” Harrison said.

Said Aggarwal, “We want people to see Amazon not as a job, but as a career.”

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9/3/21 10:44 AM

10 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

I

EDITORIAL

n ca co Com again linoi 25). judic dem tive t A the I futes opin to be the a

Let these golf course backers play through

N

fordable for locals. Currently golfers pay $21 for weekend play at the nine-hole South Shore course and $35 at the 18-hole Jackson Park. The park district should be held to that pledge.

With all respect to Olmsted, who along with Jens Jensen, Daniel Burnham, Lorado Taft and even such living creators as Pritzker Pavilion architect Frank Gehry, have created parks that earned Chicago its “Urbs in Horto” motto, public spaces can be reimagined and adapted to meet

SPACES CAN BE REIMAGINED AND ADAPTED TO MEET OUR CURRENT COLLECTIVE NEEDS WITHOUT VIOLATING THE ORIGINAL ARCHITECT’S INTENT. JOHN R. BOEHM

ow that legal challenges to placing the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park seem all but quashed, the backers of a proposal to revamp two nearby golf courses under a design masterminded by Tiger Woods believe they finally have a shot at getting it done.

Woods’ blueprint for the course was unveiled in 2017, but the idea has been pretty much on ice since then as the nonprofit Chicago Parks Golf Alliance looked to raise the more than $30 million to pay for it—and, perhaps more important, waited out the thorny debate over placing the Obama Center in Jackson Park, the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed public garden that skirts the lakefront and is one of the most historically significant parks in the city. Preservationists saw the plan to place the presidential center on what others viewed as underutilized parkland as a desecration of Olmsted’s vision. The question now is whether they will feel the same about a proposal to revamp and stitch together the existing Jackson Park and South Shore courses and turn them into the sort of facility that could attract PGA-level tournaments to the South Side.

Backers of the Woods plan could learn a thing or two from the Obama Foundation’s experience over the past several years. For one thing, it will be important to take into consideration the needs and desires of the nearby community and be sure that, in creating a championship-level course, they aren’t snubbing neighborhood duf-

fers who might not be able to afford championship-level greens fees. Another matter to attend to: being sure there is room for players who might not be able to hack a PGA-worthy course.

As Crain’s A.D. Quig reports in this week’s issue, some industry experts cast doubt on the notion that one course on

such a tight location could satisfy both pro-level golfers and weekend shankopotamuses. Even so, the Woods plan does contain a short course for families, which is an encouraging sign that the developers understand the need to keep the community happy. And the Chicago Park District promises the new course would stay af-

Group

A

Assist

our current collective needs without violating the original architect’s intent. The space up for renewal in this case is already dedicated to golf. Hopefully an upgraded design can be woven into Olmsted’s landscape without debasing it.

If the funding comes together, if nearby neighbors support it and if the finished product is a facility that can be enjoyed by South Siders while bringing new investment and excitement to the area—and we know that’s a lot of ifs—then this particular renovation is worth doing, and worth supporting.

A

YOUR VIEW

Keep pressure on workers’ rights bills structure while growing good-paying jobs in every neighborhood.

But still, this Labor Day, we know our fight is long from over. Too many workers toil in unsafe conditions without a voice on the job.

That’s why the Chicago Federation of Labor is proud to support the PRO Act and the Workers’ Rights Amendment, two major initiatives that would begin a new chapter of worker rights in our nation and our state.

The PRO Act, pending in the U.S. Senate, finally levels the playing field between employers and workers, giving workers a fair chance at organizing into a union.

The Workers’ Rights Amendment on the ballot in Illinois next year will constitutionally protect the ability for workers to join together in advocating for safer conditions and decent pay on the job.

C

ISTOCK

C

steps to support its workers, hicago plays a special the ones who have sacrificed so role in the story of Lamuch to keep this city running. bor Day. The holiday We fought to raise the city grew out of the Pullminimum wage to $15 an hour, man Strike on the South Side in with additional increases every 1894, as President Grover Cleveyear to account for inflation. land wanted to honor workers While Chicago leads nationally while at the same time siding on the minimum wage, workers with the Pullman Co. in putting know this is still not enough to down the strike. live a decent life in Chicago.

The plight of the worker was We passed the Fair Workweek recognized, but that recogni- Bob Reiter is presiOrdinance to give low-wage tion did not come with mean- dent of the Chicaworkers predictability in schedingful action to support work- go Federation of Labor. uling. No one should have to ing people. skip class to work a suddenly Today, signs of appreciation for workers are everywhere—sometimes scheduled shift or show up on the job only literally. “Thank you essential workers” has to be told they’re not needed.

We enacted the Hotel Worker Right to become the catchphrase of the slowly receding pandemic, a slogan so often repeat- Return to Work Ordinance to fairly bring back the hospitality workers who bore the ed it has started to lose its true meaning.

But in Chicago, we know that it’s not brunt of the economic slowdown. As our what you say that matters, it’s what you hotels come back, these workers—mostly do. Recognition is nice, but action is what women and people of color—deserve their jobs back, too. counts.

And we worked to pass billions in state That’s why the Chicago labor movement has pushed this city into taking concrete and local capital plans to rebuild our infra-

This year is the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Chicago Federation of Labor. Today is a moment to celebrate the progress the working class has made in that time.

But today is also reminder that while celebrations are nice, talk is cheap. Chicago’s unions continue to take on the tough fights on behalf of all workers to make real, concrete gains for the next generation of working people.

Peo

ple

Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Chicago Business, 150 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601, or email us at letters@chicagobusiness.com. Please include your full name, the city from which you’re writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes.

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Sound off: Send a column for the Opinion page to editor@ chicagobusiness.com. Please include a phone number for verification purposes, and limit submissions to 425 words or fewer.

9/3/21 3:17 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 11

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

New law makes for fairer courts

I

n a recent op-ed, Illinois Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie cites a survey commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to perpetuate unfounded claims against Illinois’ civil justice system (“New Illinois law perpetuates frivolous courts,” Aug. 25). He further claims the creation of a new judicial district is not based on the reality of demographic change but some sinister motive to help plaintiffs lawyers.

A review of readily available statistics for the Illinois civil justice system completely refutes McConchie’s assertions and shows the opinions of the surveyed corporate counsel to be unsupported by the evidence. Perhaps the actual reason no empirical data is cited by

ay e le e

ng aas y, o es et

either the survey or the senator is much like a famous quote attributed to Illinois’ own Carl Sandburg: “If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.”

The truth is that the number of Illinois civil lawsuits has dropped by 42% since 2010.

Cook County filings declined 50% 2010-19.

In downstate Madison County, a frequent target of critics, since 2013 there’s been a 51% reduction in civil lawsuits, while asbestos claims alone are down 22%.

The reason St. Clair County deserves its own judicial circuit has everything to do with demographic changes and nothing to do with asbestos cases or any other personal injury litigation. St. Clair has experienced pop-

ulation growth at a far greater rate than other counties in their judicial circuit. When this occurs, judicial circuits need to be redrawn to accommodate those changes. For example, two counties represented by McConchie, Lake and McHenry, were split into their own judicial circuits in 2006. This move was necessitated by population growth which made it impractical, inefficient and inequitable to have both counties within the 19th Judicial Circuit. The move was not met with histrionics or false claims of ill motive but was viewed as necessary and prudent.

It is also impossible to reconcile McConchie’s contention that Illinois is anti-business with regular stories in Crain’s touting

corporate relocations to the Chicago area, in conjunction with booming residential construction downtown. Both Madison and St. Clair counties, areas decried by McConchie, have enjoyed multidecade population and economic growth.

Illinois proves that a state can support businesses and protect its residents when they have been the victims of corporate negligence or malfeasance. McConchie has never advocated for limitations on the access of corporate or business interests to the courts. He should afford individual citizens the same.

J. MATTHEW DUDLEY President, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association

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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Advertising Section To place your listing, visit www.chicagobusiness.com/peoplemoves or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

ACCOUNTING

CONSTRUCTION

EDUCATION

LAW

NON-PROFIT

Wipfli LLP, Lincolnshire

DSI, Chicago

Benesch, Chicago

Christine Lussow, AIA, joins Chicago based general contractor, Development Solutions Inc., (DSI) as Project Executive. She brings more than 25 years of diversified experience in architectural design and construction management.

Christine has been a part of some of Chicago’s most noteworthy office renovations, such as the Grand Lobby at the Old Post Office and the redevelopment of the Macy’s building.

Christine is poised to play a primary role in growing DSI’s office interior construction group.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Wipfli, a top 20 CPA and consulting firm with four Chicagoland offices, promoted Kurt Peterson, CPA, to partner. Kurt is a leader in Wipfli’s Nonprofit group, assisting nonpublic special education institutions, trade and professional associations, public charities and grant-funded organizations in fulfilling their mission.

As a Certified Fraud Examiner, he leverages his knowledge and skills to oversee audit engagements.

Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Chicago Marcia R. Lehman joins Spertus Institute’s leadership team as Vice President for Advancement. She will lead fundraising growth across all philanthropic streams, an increasingly important role as Spertus expands the geographic footprint of its educational programming and approaches its 2024 centennial. Of her appointment, Spertus President and CEO Dr. Dean P. Bell said, “Marcia brings an array of skills including an impressive track record of fundraising for higher education.” More at spertus.edu

ARCHITECTURE / ENGINEERING Eriksson Engineering Associates, Ltd., Chicago Eriksson Engineering Associates, Ltd. (EEA) welcomes John Grieger, P.E. as Client Manager.

With more than 10 years of civil engineering design, construction, and project management experience, John will be responsible for developing relationships in multiple market sectors and providing design recommendations to clients on a variety of projects. John holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Iowa and is licensed in both Illinois and Wisconsin.

FOOD / BEVERAGE CONSTRUCTION

ZENB U.S., Inc., Chicago

The Walsh Group, Chicago

Hugo Pérez has been named Vice President of Marketing at ZENB U.S. Pérez will lead the team’s integrated marketing and creative approach to expand awareness and impact of the direct-to-consumer, plant-powered brand known for their 100% yellow pea pasta. As a passionate multicultural marketer, Pérez will leverage his extensive brand and CPG experience to connect with consumers and accelerate the brand as a category leader in the plantbased foods space, elevating ZENB’s whole-plant approach.

Steve Kehle has been promoted to Chief Operations Officer for The Walsh Group’s Transportation Division, providing executive leadership over its bridge, highway and transit projects across the United States. With over 36 years of experience, Steve has led numerous high-profile transportation construction efforts throughout the Midwest and Chicago area, most recently the CTA Red-Purple Modernization on the city’s northside and the reconstruction of the I-294 Mile Long Bridge in Willow Springs.

CONSTRUCTION Gilbane Building Company, Chicago Gilbane, a top Chicago builder, announces the promotion of Dan Keaveney as our operational leader for the private sector. In his role, Dan is focused on expanding our work in this market.

With 15 years of industry experience, Dan’s vast portfolio, commitment to excellence and collaborative, Lean approach have attributed to his success. He has a passion for mentoring others and currently serves as practice chair for Lean Construction Institute and technology committee chair for Chicagoland AGC.

CONSTRUCTION

DESIGN / CONSTRUCTION

P012_CCB_20210906_v3.indd 1

LAW Esbrook Law P.C., Chicago C. Barry Montgomery joined Esbrook Law P.C. in Chicago as Senior Counsel. Montgomery has a national reputation as a trial lawyer and strategist in complex commercial litigation, product liability, mass tort, class actions, construction litigation, insurance litigation & corporate transactions. He has tried more than 150 jury trials to verdict in state and federal courts throughout the US. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and of the International Society of Barristers.

LAW Hogan Marren Babbo & Rose, Ltd., Chicago Hogan Marren Babbo & Rose, Ltd. is pleased to announce the promotion of George P. Sellis to Partner in the firm. Mr. Sellis’s practice focuses on regulatory compliance and administrative litigation in the healthcare and education sectors.

Mr. Sellis also has broad experience in contract drafting, corporate governance, and privacy matters.

Laura Herrera joins the MCA as Senior Director of Communications and Content, a newly created position that advances the museum’s values, mission, and efforts across all digital, interpretive, marketing, press, and publication platforms. Herrera will focus on shaping a future MCA audience that reflects the evolving cultural fabric of Chicago and defining the MCA’s work through the lens of DEI. Herrera was most recently the Director of Communications at the Chicago History Museum.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, Chicago Bryan Schneider joined professional services firm Manatt as a partner in its consumer financial services practice. He joins from the CFPB, where he led the Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending division. He has also held leadership positions at one of the largest health care and pharmacy providers in the U.S. Through Manatt’s legal and consulting capabilities, Bryan will draw on his regulatory roots to guide clients through consumer financial services regulatory and enforcement matters.

PREMIER Design + Build Group, Buffalo Grove PREMIER Design + Build Group welcomes Alec Miller as General Counsel. In his new role, Alec oversees risk management and legal matters for PREMIER, which designs and builds commercial, industrial, retail, hospitality, medical, adaptive reuse, and interior spaces.

Alec is based at PREMIER’s downtown office. He brings a wide range of knowledge in construction, real estate development, and contracting law. PREMIER is a national firm with regional offices in Illinois, California, and New Jersey.

Gilbane Building Company, Chicago Gilbane, a top Chicago builder, announces Michelle McClendon as operational leader for K-12 education and public sector markets.

With 17 years of experience, Michelle is responsible for growing our public sector work.

Michelle is passionate about Gilbane being part of the fabric of our local communities and is dedicated to educating the next generation and advancing Chicago sustainability efforts. Michelle serves on the board for IL Green Alliance and We Will Chicago Economic Pillar committee.

Hannah K. Costigan Cowles has joined Benesch as an associate in the firm’s Corporate & Securities Practice Group. Hannah focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions across a range of industries and advising clients on commercial contracting matters.

EDUCATION Loyola University, Chicago Loyola University Chicago announces the election of Mary Hasten to its Board of Trustees. Hasten is the president and treasurer of The Hasten Foundation.

An alumna of Fairfield University, Hasten is board vice chair of Start Early (formerly the Ounce of Prevention Fund) and a member of the Midwest Committee for CARE. She also previously served on the Boston College Parent’s Council.

REAL ESTATE LAW Taft Law, Chicago HEALTH CARE Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, Chicago Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush (MOR), ranked among the top ten orthopedic programs in the country, welcomes two new physicians to its surgical team.

Behery Former Rush medical student Omar Behery, MD, returns to his roots after completing orthopedic residency at NYU Langone and joint fellowship training at OrthoCarolina.

Specializing in minimally invasive hip and knee Bohl replacements, Dr. Behery sees patients now in Naperville and in Joliet this fall.

Yale medical school graduate Daniel Bohl, MD, also returns to MOR following his orthopedic residency at Rush and foot and ankle subspecialty training at Baylor. Dr. Bohl is a team doctor for the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls. He sees patients in Chicago, Oak Park, Westchester, and Munster, IN.

Taft welcomes Scott Dawson as an associate attorney in the Real Estate practice. Scott assists clients in real estate transactions related to the acquisition, disposition, leasing, development, and financing of real property.

CRG, Chicago CRG welcomes Alison Mills as Vice President of Design and Development.

Alison will oversee the firm’s design and entitlement strategies and development activities for CRG’s residential business. Mills previously managed a $1.2 billion multifamily pipeline for CA Ventures and was an architect with Kohn Pedersen Fox in New York. Mills holds a master’s degree in city planning with a certificate in real estate development from UC Berkeley and a B.A. in architecture from Princeton University.

LAW Taft Law, Chicago Taft is pleased to announce that associate attorney Caroline Thee has rejoined the firm in the Business practice.

She focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions, including related equity and debt financings.

To order frames or plaques of profiles contact Lauren Melesio at lmelesio@crain.com or 212-210-0707

9/1/21 8:08 AM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 13

Meet the Rising Stars in Law: These 74 attorneys are making an impact in all corners of their profession, including corporate finance, intellectual property, litigation, health care, bankruptcy and real estate. All have been partners at their firms for five years or less. They have guided clients through the uncertainty of the pandemic, from interpreting the CARES Act to interpreting local health care orders and recommendations.

Yet they’ve traveled different journeys. Some began in private practice right out of law school, while others have experience as prosecutors or reg-

ulators. Still others started out as teachers and performers.

These rising stars are active in their firms’ governance. Many are involved in efforts to expand diversity and inclusion and are adding more women and people of color to their teams. They mentor younger lawyers. And they tackle pro bono projects, from defending wrongly accused prisoners to helping immigrants gain asylum. They’re certain to make even more of a mark in the years to come.

By Judith Crown and Lisa Bertagnoli

GETTY IMAGES

METHODOLOGY: The rising stars featured did not pay to be included. Their profiles were drawn from nomination materials submitted. This list is not comprehensive. It includes attorneys for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after an editorial review. These honorees have been partners for five years or less and have demonstrated an impact at their firm and in the community. Letters of recommendation were required.

JONATHAN AMARILIO

ELIZABETH BABBITT

MICHAEL BABBITT

LAURA BACON

NICOLE BERG

Partner Taft Stettinius & Hollister

Partner Taft Stettinius & Hollister

Partner Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Partner Nixon Peabody

Partner Keller Lenkner

Appellate lawyer Jonathan Amarilio has two cases pending before the Illinois Supreme Court. One challenges the constitutionality of an Illinois statute immunizing ride-share companies from liability when their drivers sexually assault their passengers.

The second concerns employers’ ability to protect sexual harassment victims from retaliatory lawsuits by workplace harassers. Amarilio is host of the Chicago Bar Association podcast @theBar and is a contributor to the Illinois Appellate Lawyer Association’s blog, the Brief. Amarilio was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to serve on the court’s Committee on Character & Fitness, which governs admission of attorneys to the Illinois bar. He is slated to be president of the Appellate Lawyers Association for 2022-23.

He is on the board of Lawyers Lend-a-Hand to Youth, which provides tutoring to students from diverse backgrounds.

Litigation attorney Elizabeth Babbitt advises businesses on employment discrimination, employee whistleblowing, unfair business practices, trade secrets and other issues.

She recently successfully reversed an $8.1 million jury verdict on a negligent misrepresentation claim in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

She is one of the lead attorneys representing the city of Chicago in the litigation, negotiation and ongoing implementation of the Chicago Police Department consent decree and has expertise regarding police practices, use of force, crisis intervention and police reform measures.

“She is a passionate advocate and a tough adversary,” says Kim Walberg, co-chair of the Taft Chicago Litigation Group. Babbitt was selected to serve on Taft’s executive committee. She also participates on the firm’s Associate Advancement & Recruitment Committee and leads the Chicago office’s women’s affinity group.

Michael Babbitt joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher last year and has helped expand the new Chicago office to more than 40 attorneys. Babbitt focuses on patent litigation, Patent Trial & Appeal Board proceedings and technology disputes.

He uses his background in electrical and computer engineering to advise clients in technical industries. Babbitt serves as pro bono coordinator for the Chicago office and led the firm’s efforts this year teaming with a prisoners rights organization for a client unjustly accused of murdering his father. Babbitt previously was a partner at Jenner & Block, where he handled scores of federal litigations and more than 40 PTAB proceedings for petitioners and patent owners (about a quarter being patent owners). He recently became a trustee of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

In the past year, litigation lawyer Laura Bacon was a key player in an international arbitration involving trade secrets. The case culminated in a hearing this summer in which she served as second chair.

The Nixon Peabody litigation team achieved a directed verdict for their client. Earlier this year, Bacon spearheaded a pro bono collaboration with a Chicago legal service in an effort to expunge cannabis convictions, which involved fundraising and coordinating attorney training. She’s a member of the Chicago Bar Association’s Alliance for Women Committee. In 2018, she co-chaired a conference that brought together more than 80 Chicago-area female attorneys.

Bacon joined Nixon Peabody through the firm’s 2015 merger with Ungaretti & Harris and was named partner last year.

At Keller Lenkner, Nicole Berg specializes in national product-liability matters and holds court-appointed leadership positions in two large litigations. She was appointed to a subcommittee in the case where military-issued 3M earplugs are alleged to have caused hearing damage to service members and veterans. It’s considered the largest multidistrict litigation on record. And she was appointed to the plaintiffs’ executive committee in a case alleging a defective Paragard contraceptive device. Over the past two years, Berg helped build the firm’s product-liability group to a team of more than two dozen attorneys, paralegals and case managers. She also helped build and mentor an attorney team made up almost entirely of women. Berg co-founded A Better Tomorrow Education Fund, a nonprofit that provides scholarships to Chicago students for higher education.

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14 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

ALEXA BERLIN

JUSTIN BERNBROCK

AMIT BINDRA

CAROLYN BLESSING

STEVEN BLOCK

Partner Latham & Watkins

Partner Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton

Partner The Prinz Law Firm

Partner Locke Lord

Partner Thompson Hine

At the Prinz Law Firm, Amit Bindra manages litigation and specializes in injunction hearings, restrictive covenants, trade secret disputes and other issues.

Bindra is largely responsible for drafting a key amendment to the Illinois Freedom to Work Act, improving employee mobility and barring noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements below a certain compensation. He worked on this legislation in a pro bono capacity for the past two years on behalf of the Illinois chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association, where he serves on the board and is the organization’s communications co-chair. Bindra also teaches a legal writing course as an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. At Prinz, he oversees the litigation department and mentors associate attorneys in legal writing, oral advocacy and litigation strategy.

At Locke Lord, Carolyn ­Blessing represents pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in intellectual property litigation. She’s had significant roles in two fully virtual federal trials in the past year. Over the past 18 months, Blessing has spoken at virtual programs focused on adapting to the pandemic, emphasizing the need for professional development. As law school hiring partner in Chicago, she has mentored students through the challenges of beginning a career in unprecedented times. Blessing helped establish a partnership between the Chicago office and the Diversity Attorney Pipeline Program, a nonprofit addressing the scarcity of women of color in the legal profession.

This year, the Chicago office hired a summer intern through the program. Blessing is past president of the Chicago chapter of the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law.

Former federal prosecutor Steven Block focuses on cases involving public corruption, securities violations, trade secrets and other white-collar matters. He also serves as a vice chair of the firm’s national litigation department.

This year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker appointed Block to the Illinois Torture Inquiry & Relief Commission, which investigates claims of confessions to determine whether sufficient evidence of torture exists to merit judicial review. As a federal prosecutor, Block was the lead on the government’s case against former

A partner in Latham & Watkins’ capital markets, public company and corporate governance practices, Alexa Berlin was part of the team that represented Airbnb in its $3.4 billion initial public offering, the largest U.S. IPO of 2020.

Berlin also represented the underwriters in connection with Beyond Meat’s 2019 IPO and its $1 billion convertible senior notes offering this year. “Alexa provided smart and steady counsel to our public company clients facing unprecedented business challenges brought on by the pandemic,” says Latham Managing Partner Cathy A. Birkeland. As part of Latham’s pro bono work in civil rights, Berlin staffed a national voter hotline during the 2020 presidential election.

She serves on a multioffice initiative designed to help women inside and outside the firm expand their professional networks and develop business opportunities.

The economic calamity of the pandemic placed new demands on Justin Bernbrock’s bankruptcy and restructuring practice.

Bernbrock recently was lead counsel for Portland, Ore., radio broadcaster Alpha Media in its recently completed restructuring. He represented an investor group in connection with its acquisition of Seattle kitchenware products company Sur La Table, which had earlier filed for bankruptcy protection. And he is lead counsel to the liquidating trustee for the Neiman Marcus Liquidating Trust, responsible for the administration of unsecured claims in the bankruptcy case.

Bernbrock joined Sheppard Mullin last year from Kirkland & Ellis, where he was a restructuring partner. Before becoming a lawyer, he served for nearly 10 years in the U.S. Navy. He recently served as co-chair of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s annual gala.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, which involved a scheme to cover up past misdeeds through illicit financial transactions. Block served as deputy chief in the U.S. attorney’s office and chief of the Special Prosecutions Bureau in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. He joined Thompson Hine as a partner in 2018.

TIMOTHY CASTELLI

KRISTINA K. CERCONE

GENEVIEVE CHARLTON

LOUIS CHIAPPETTA

ROB CHIDESTER

M&A and private-equity partner Ropes & Gray

Partner Jones Day

Partner Barnes & Thornburg

Partner Mayer Brown

Partner Gould & Ratner

At Ropes & Gray, Timothy Castelli represents companies, private-equity firms and family offices in buyouts, M&A and other investments. Castelli recently represented McNally Capital in the sale of ITS Logistics, GHO Capital in its acquisition of Velocity Clinical Research, and Vistria Group and Excellere Partners in their investment in SCA Pharmaceuticals. The pandemic required Castelli to shift from the excitement of dealmaking to the more subtle demands of working with clients to safeguard their investments. “Tim combines an exhaustive knowledge of the law with a nimble and creative

Litigator Kristina K. “Kristi” Cercone focuses on the defense of product liability and mass tort cases and assists clients in protecting trade secrets and IP rights. She represents clients before the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Cercone also represents several universities and an athletic conference in the NCAA Student-Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation, a federal multidistrict litigation consolidating more than 500 class actions brought on behalf of former football student-athletes alleging that universities, athletic conferences and the NCAA failed to warn them about the adverse effects of concussive hits. Cercone is a member of the Chicago office’s pro bono committee and has taken on the role of assignment coordinator for associates in the Chicago litigation practice.

She serves as chair of the Grant Park Music Festival’s Associates Council.

Intellectual property attorney Genevieve Charlton focuses on trademark, copyright and advertising law. Clients include a top sunglass brand, a toy manufacturer and a private-equity firm, for which she manages a portfolio of more than 1,000 marks.

Charlton and her team won a trademark infringement bench trial just six months after having her first child. She and her team defended the decision before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and won on all appealed issues, reversing a jury trial decision in a false-advertising case. Charlton joined Barnes & Thornburg in 2016 as an associate and was named partner this year. This year, she is co-leading the summer associates program. Charlton also founded a summer writing club for summer associates and law clerks.

At Mayer Brown, Louis ­Chiappetta is a restructuring partner specializing in troubled company mergers and acquisitions and restructurings. Recent cases include a $1.1 billion out-of-court debt restructuring of Foster Farms, a $300 million out-of-court restructuring and sale of School Specialty, and full recovery of $70 million in distressed financing for Libremax. His pro bono work includes advocating for veterans’ and first responders’ rights, asylum seekers’ and immigrants’ rights, and aiding children of undocumented people. Before joining Mayer Brown in 2019, Chiappetta was an associate at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. Earlier, he spent 10 years as a high school math teacher and volunteered as a wrestling coach, at Glenbard North in Carol Stream.

He’s recruited attorneys from diverse backgrounds to join Mayer Brown’s restructuring team.

As a partner in Gould & Ratner’s corporate practice, Rob Chidester handles capital raises, securities issuances and mergers and acquisitions.

Chidester’s workload increased by more than 20 percent during the pandemic, with a robust deal flow in fintech and clean tech.

Before and since his promotion to partner in December, Chidester led the development and launch of specialty teams in cryptocurrency and clean tech/ ESG. He represented family offices, funds and other investors in cryptocurrency investments up to $100 million. Earlier in his career, Chidester served as a financial and policy analyst

approach to problem solving that resonates with clients,” says private-equity partner Neill P. Jakobe. Castelli serves on the firm’s associate development committee, providing mentorship to junior associates, and also participates in the diversity mentorship program.

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with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Laboratory System, where he evaluated energy technology research and energy infrastructure projects in China and Northeast Asia. He’s been a consultant to the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research.

9/3/21 2:17 PM

LEVENFELD PEARLSTEIN

RISING STARS At Levenfeld Pearlstein, our ambition to be innovative, in both style and strategy, brings people together, united in purpose, so they can do exceptional things.

Meet Our Crain’s Chicago Business’ Notable Rising Stars:

CHRISTINA CARRIERE LUTZ

JASON ROMICK

CARRIE HARRINGTON

Litigation

Corporate

Trusts & Estates

Commercial Litigation General Litigation

Mergers & Acquisitions Strategic Transactions

Protect & Transfer Assets Estate & Tax Planning

celutz@lplegal.com 312.476.7512

jromick@lplegal.com 312.476.7579

charrington@lplegal.com 312.476.7553

2 N. LaSalle St. Suite 1300 Chicago, Illinois 60602 LPlegal.com

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16 SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

ERIC CHOI

DAVID R. CLARK

KEVIN COFFEY

BRYCE COOPER

MICHAEL DEBRE

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Partner Neal Gerber Eisenberg

Partner Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom

Shareholder Polsinelli

Partner Winston & Strawn

Principal Chuhak & Tecson

Li K

As a member of Polsinelli’s health care litigation and government investigations practices, Kevin Coffey counsels clients on regulatory compliance and navigates investigations by government agencies. He’s represented large health care providers in investigations and litigation, including in the Northern District of Illinois, the Southern District of New York, Texas, Georgia and Florida. “As the federal government continues its hyper-vigilance in identifying COVID-related fraud in health care, Kevin’s ability to help hospital system leaders to identify and stop fraud before it starts has never been more crucial,” says Polsinelli Chicago office Managing Partner Mary Clare Bonaccorsi. Coffey joined Polsinelli as an associate in 2014 and became a shareholder last year.

He supports nonprofits including Legal Aid Chicago and Avenues to Independence, an independent living facility for the developmentally disabled.

At Winston & Strawn, Bryce Cooper specializes in mass tort, product liability and pharmaceutical patent litigation. He represented Monsanto in Roundup product liability cases, including the first to go to trial, reducing a punitive-damages award by $211 million. He defended Abbott Laboratories in an action alleging design defect and negligence claims. And he defended Boeing in pending cases concerning alleged toxic air exposure. As the first openly LGBTQ partner in Winston’s Chicago office, Cooper leads recruiting for LGBTQ attorneys and helps lead Winston’s firmwide LGBTQ affinity group.

He is leading, in partnership with Lambda Legal, one of three lawsuits challenging the Department of Defense’s policies excluding service members living with HIV. Cooper serves on the board of the nonprofit Legal Council for Health Justice.

Michael Debre represents financial institutions in loan enforcement, insolvency, fraud, breach of contract and mortgage foreclosures.

He recently was appointed special assistant attorney general to represent the Illinois state treasurer in various matters. In his practice, Debre secured a victory for a lender on a non-dischargeability claim in a bankruptcy case. He also obtained a $1.7 million judgment for a lender on an assigned promissory note. Debre joined Chuhak & Tecson’s banking practice in 2015 as an associate and was elevated to principal last year.

Prior to his legal career, Debre was a senior vice president at New City Bank, an experience that gave him an understanding of the issues faced by lenders.

He’s an instructor for the Moot Court Club at Marist High School, his alma mater.

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Trial lawyer Eric Choi has broad experience in commercial disputes. In his pro bono work, Choi and fellow Neal Gerber Eisenberg attorneys coordinated with Northwestern Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions to secure a notguilty verdict and exonerate Kerry Masterson, a woman who had been wrongfully convicted of murder and had served eight years in prison. In a civil rights case, Choi and fellow attorneys collectively devoted more than 865 hours to prepare their client for trial against a Chicago police officer for unlawful search and arrest. Choi is a member of the

firm’s diversity & inclusion and hiring committees. He serves on the executive board of the Korean American Bar Association of Chicago.

Corporate partner David R. Clark focuses on M&A, corporate governance and securities matters. Clark played a leading role in representing CME Group in its multijurisdiction transaction with IHS Markit, involving the combination of the parties’ post-trade services into a new joint venture. He advised Flagstar Bancorp in its $2.6 billion merger with New York Community Bancorp and Homewerks Worldwide on its growth investment from H.I.G. Capital.

In addition to his corporate practice, Clark has represented pro bono clients in immigration matters, including asylum cases and petitions under the DREAM Act. Recently, he advised the nonprofit Greater Englewood Community Development Corp. community on onboarding new directors and providing board training. Clark joined Skadden as a summer associate in 2009 and was promoted to partner last year.

ROPES & GRAY congratulates Timothy Castelli and Timothy Farrell, and all the “Notable Rising Stars in Law.” Based in our 100-lawyer Chicago office, Timothy Castelli is a leading private equity and M&A dealmaker who advises global investors in complex transactions.

Timothy Farrell is among the nation’s top commercial and securities litigators.

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Timothy Castelli

Timothy Farrell

Private Capital Transactions

Litigation & Enforcement

Attorney Advertising © 2021 Ropes & Gray LLP

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CHARLES DEVORE

ADAM DIEDERICH

TIMOTHY FARRELL

EMILY FITZGERALD

MICHAEL FRISCH

Litigation partner Katten Muchin Rosenman

Partner Schiff Hardin

Partner Ropes & Gray

Partner Swanson Martin & Bell

Litigation partner Charles DeVore represents clients in business disputes, class actions and white-collar and government investigations.

Last year, DeVore led a team of Katten attorneys in Chicago and Los Angeles who worked with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Illinois Prison Project to pursue the early release of elderly and medically vulnerable federal and state inmates who were at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and didn’t pose a risk to their communities. He also worked with a team of Katten attorneys to support a nonprofit by securing a refund from a hotel after the nonprofit canceled its annual conference. DeVore joined Katten as an associate in 2013 and became a partner in 2019. Earlier, he was a high school teacher with Teach For America.

As a partner in Schiff Hardin’s litigation and dispute resolution practice group, Adam Diederich focuses on resolving disputes among owners of privately held businesses. Last year, Diederich recommended a strategy shift in a client’s longstanding case to invalidate a restrictive noncompete covenant. Diederich argued an entirely different motion, earning the client his freedom without a trial. Diederich serves as co-counsel with the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, representing students and their families in lawsuits against school districts that failed to protect those students from being racially harassed by their peers. He joined the organization’s board this year.

Diederich joined Schiff Hardin as an associate in 2012 and was named a partner in 2018. Before law school, he taught fourth grade in Baltimore through Teach For America.

Litigator Timothy Farrell represents companies, private-equity sponsors and nonprofits. He’s representing Duff & Phelps in Sears Holdings’ post-bankruptcy adversary proceeding brought by unsecured creditors. And he won relief for juveniles subjected to unconstitutional mechanical restraints and solitary confinement at Iowa Boys State Training School. Farrell was among a core group of Ropes & Gray partners who gained expertise in the litigation and regulatory risks around the CARES Act passed in the wake of the pandemic and advised clients on issues around

At Swanson Martin & Bell, Emily Fitzgerald handles commercial litigation and business disputes, financial fraud, product liability, consumer protection class actions, intellectual property, employment and other matters.

In the past 18 months, Fitzgerald successfully argued before the 7th Circuit in a maritime matter while five months pregnant with her second son.

The court issued an opinion in her client’s favor days after the argument. As co-chair of the Advancement of Women in Law committee, Fitzgerald is focused on implementing a program in which female attorneys mentor those below and receive mentorship from those above them. She also serves on the recruiting and community service committees. Fitzgerald is president of the American Cancer Society Associate Board of Ambassadors, a charitable board that raises $500,000 in revenue annually.

Partner, head of government litigation and investigations Croke Fairchild Morgan & Beres

PPP loan funding. This summer, Farrell started a program for students from underserved communities to expose them to the legal profession. Farrell is a classically trained singer and before law school had a performing career.

Michael Frisch joined Croke Fairchild Morgan & Beres as a partner this year, building the firm’s government investigations and litigation practice from the ground up. He helps clients, particularly in financial services, navigate regulatory matters and enforcement actions and is active in the growing cryptocurrency market. Previously, he was a senior adviser and legal counsel for the city of Chicago and Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Frisch helped lead the city’s response to the pandemic, negotiating contracts for the McCormick Place field hospital and drafting COVID-19 rules and orders.

Earlier, he was senior trial attorney at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he led one of the commission’s first enforcement actions against a cryptocurrency platform. He is a member of the Global Digital Asset & Cryptocurrency Association, which is establishing regulatory guidelines.

Congratulations to Jonathan Amarilio, Elizabeth Babbitt, and Daniel Saeedi on their recognition as Notable Rising Stars in Law

by Crain’s Chicago Business.

Jonathan B. Amarilio Partner

Elizabeth E. Babbitt Partner

Daniel R. Saeedi Partner Taftlaw.com

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18 SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

JULIE GARDNER Principal Chuhak & Tecson

At Chuhak & Tecson, Julie Gardner handles estates and estate planning, probate and trust administration, and guardianship. She was appointed guardian ad litem and court-appointed counsel for the Cook County Circuit Court’s Probate Division. Gardner has managed cases involving abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of the elderly or disabled, such as disinheriting individuals who abused, neglected or exploited people before they died. Gardner joined Chuhak & Tecson as an associate in 2017, and she was elevated to principal in only three years. She’s a rising leader in the firm’s Women Helping Women program and serves as a Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law delegate. Through her membership with Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, Gardner has provided pro bono legal services on guardianship matters.

PAULINA GARGACHMIEL Principal Chuhak & Tecson

Paulina Garga-Chmiel represents lenders in foreclosure litigation, bankruptcy matters, breach of contract disputes and SBA loan workouts, as well as creditors’ rights litigation and workouts.

During the pandemic, Garga-Chmiel pivoted and invested in business and professional development efforts such as drafting the consumer law and regulations compliance handbook for the firm’s banking practice. She joined Chuhak & Tecson as an associate five years ago and was elevated to principal this year. Garga-Chmiel serves on the associate and law clerk committee and is the main delegate for the Coalition of Women’s Initiative in Law. A native of Poland, she provides pro bono legal assistance to underserved members of Chicago’s Polish community.

TIFFANY GEHRKE

GREGORY GISTENSON

KELLY GRECO

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Partner Marshall Gerstein & Borun

Partner Barnes & Thornburg

Shareholder Polsinelli

Pa St

Intellectual property attorney Tiffany Gehrke in the past 18 months has cleared client trademarks for branding launches and prepared clients for acquisitions or divestitures of their IP assets.

She’s resolved trademark opposition proceedings, settled trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement cases and handled trade dress infringement matters. Gehrke is president-elect of the IP Law Association of Chicago, considered the first IP law association in the U.S. She provides pro bono legal services to incarcerated and indigent individuals and nonprofits, as well as to individuals who have had their constitutional rights violated. Gehrke also serves as a partner sponsor for firm associates who provide pro bono services. She’s been active in firm initiatives on diversity and workplace balance. Earlier in her career, she was a software engineer.

As vice chair of Barnes & Thornburg’s construction practice, Gregory Gistenson advises on delay-and-disruption disputes, bond claims and mechanic’s lien disputes.

In the past 18 months, he earned the lead role on a team of five attorneys from three states defending an industrial client from more than 30 mechanic’s lien and related claims on a single project.

During the pandemic, Gistenson advised clients on how to continue construction of critical infrastructure projects and address delays, disruptions and safety protocols. In pro bono work, Gistenson assists single mothers with limited means in disputes over unjust enforcement actions by the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services. Gistenson was part of a team that spearheaded a successful class-action lawsuit over the improper indication of child abuse and neglect.

Real estate attorney Kelly Greco led clients through the pandemic and provided solutions for their pressing business problems. She represented a developer of high-end student housing, helping it to finance and operate projects nationwide. Greco also represented a national real estate investor in the $470 million acquisition of a multifamily portfolio. One of Greco’s most active clients is a national retail development company that has pounced on the opportunity to develop sites with national retail tenants such as Starbucks and Chipotle. Greco joined Polsinelli in 2017 from Fox Rothschild. She mentors associates in the real estate group and is a participant in Polsinelli’s Women’s Empowerment Group.

Outside the firm, Greco is chair of the sponsorship committee for CREW Chicago, which works to advance women in commercial real estate.

P in ex ye

Congratulations to Thompson Hine partners Steven A. Block and Simone A. Randolph for being named 2021 Notable Rising Stars in Law.

Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service business law firm with approximately 400 lawyers in 8 offices, is committed to innovation. Its nationally recognized SmartPaTHTM approach to service delivery is a smarter way to work – predictable, efficient and aligned with client goals. Learn more at ThompsonHine.com/SmartPaTH.

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 19

MARK R. GREER

CARRIE HARRINGTON

GEORGE HOUHANISIN

JONATHAN HUGHLEY

HILARY JAFFE

Partner Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young

Partner, leader of trusts and estates practice group Levenfeld Pearlstein

Partner McDermott Will & Emery

Partner Marshall Gerstein & Borun

Partner Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen

Corporate finance specialist George Houhanisin guided clients through the uncertainties and market shifts of the pandemic.

Recently he’s worked with Lorient Capital, a health care-focused private-equity firm, and became the company’s go-to lawyer for financing deals. He also represented ABC Supply in a $400 million bond offering and Cresco in a $200 million credit agreement. Other private-equity clients include H.I.G. Capital, Martis Capital, Omers, Gemspring Capital and CenterGate Capital. Houhanisin has been on the firm’s pro bono committee since he was a first-year lawyer and has taken on projects from Lawyers for the Creative Arts and the Law Project in Chicago. He devotes hours to mentoring younger lawyers: This summer he is conducting weekly one-hour chats with junior and summer associates and paralegals.

Intellectual property attorney Jonathan Hughley works with inventors, startups and multinationals on patent protection strategies. He prepares and prosecutes domestic and foreign utility and design applications and prepares patentability and infringement opinions involving mechanical, electromechanical and software technologies. Last year, Hughley was selected as a Pathway to Partnership Fellow by the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms. He presents to undergraduate students on patent law through the committee’s LegalTrek program. Hughley serves on Marshall Gerstein’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee and is involved in recruiting and evaluating candidates. Hughley does pro bono work for Inclusion in the Legal Profession, Wills for Heroes Foundation and Cabrini Green Legal Aid. Earlier in his career, Hughley held engineering and legal positions at International Truck & Engine and Caterpillar.

Hilary Jaffe specializes in affordable housing and represents investors in building and rehabilitating units across the country using federal and state low-income housing tax credits. In her three years at Applegate, Jaffe has directly helped to build and rehabilitate more than 5,000 units of affordable housing for individuals and families across the country. She became partner last year and in July was elected to the firm’s six-member management committee.

Jaffe has more than 13 years of leadership with the ABA Forum on Affordable Housing & Community Development Law. As a member of the governing committee, she chairs a program that brings industry practitioners to law schools to talk about opportunities in the field. She is also an active member of the forum’s Outreach & Diversity Committee.

Partner Mark R. Greer specializes in investment management and exchange-traded funds. Late last year, Greer worked on the launch of Invesco’s first suite of active nontransparent exchange-traded funds in the U.S. Greer has represented Invesco funds for a decade.

In 2018 he and colleagues assisted with the acquisition of the Guggenheim ETF business, which involved reorganizing 67 Guggenheim ETFs onto Invesco’s platform. This year, he represented the funds of the State Farm Associates’ Fund Trust and their independent trustees in a reorganization into new products subadvised by Northern Trust Investments. Greer is a member of Stradley Ronon’s hiring and diversity committees. Outside the firm, he serves on the board of the nonprofit Legal Council for Health Justice and its audit and finance committee.

Carrie Harrington was named lead of the trusts and estates practice group at the start of the year. In recent months, Harrington created successful tax treatment of a potential multimillion-dollar SPAC, prepared trust structures for clients’ gift tax and asset protection planning, and guided grieving spouses and children through the estate and trust administration process. A champion for women at the firm and in law, her practice group in the past nine months hired five employees, all of whom are women and two of whom are women of color.

Last year, Harrington launched the firm’s Wills for Teachers pro bono program, which provides free estate planning for teachers who must return to the classroom during the pandemic. She represents an immigrant seeking asylum in the U.S.

Julie Gardner

We salute all of the 2021 Notable Rising Stars in Law honorees and are especially proud of our recognized attorneys.

“My wide-ranging experience, interest, and knowledge of trusts and estates enable me to methodically advise clients on the key issues that arise with administration, litigation and planning.”

Mike, Julie and Paulina, you make an impact and a difference in the lives and businesses of our clients. By actively serving on committees, promoting diversity and inclusion, leading by example with your community service, and mentoring our associates, you are proven leaders — and we feel privileged that you have chosen to practice with us.

Mike Debre

“In the demanding business of banking with its highly regulated environment, providing my clients with sound strategies to avoid unwelcomed surprises is what I do best.”

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Paulina Garga-Chmiel

“By staying up to date with all of the rapidly changing legislation impacting the banking sector, I am able to both continually protect my clients’ interests and gain their trust.”

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20 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

EMILY JOHNSON

KATHERINE JOHNSON

SARAH F. KING

Member, national health care practice group McDonald Hopkins

Partner Steptoe & Johnson

Partner Clifford Law Offices

Katherine “Kate” Johnson is a patent litigator who handles complex litigation across a variety of technical fields, including pharmaceutical matters, website development, automotive parts, medical devices, chemical processes and nutritional compositions. A registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, she’s represented numerous clients in federal district courts; USPTO proceedings, including inter partes reviews; appeals before the Federal Circuit; and International Trade Commission investigations. She was elected partner at the beginning of 2021, and she mentors fulltime and summer associates across the Chicago office. She is a board member and programming co-chair for the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law in Chicago and volunteers for Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, representing families in adoption matters on a regular basis.

Sarah F. King focuses on medical malpractice on behalf of plaintiffs, especially complex cases involving brain-damaged babies. She was sworn in as financial secretary of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois as well as the secretary of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.

She’s an editor of the ITLA Trial Notebook and co-founded the ITLA Women’s Caucus to lobby for legislation that ensures justice for injured women and children in Illinois.

In 2020, King founded the WBAI Policy & Procedure Committee. She is a past president of Women Everywhere: Partners in Service Project, a collaborative effort coordinating volunteer activities to provide college scholarships to eligible high school girls. She also was elected to the Illinois State Bar Association’s Assembly, where she served two terms on the policymaking body.

Health care attorney Emily Johnson provides regulatory and compliance assistance, including HIPAA policies and procedures to prevent breaches and responding to breaches and possible government investigations.

During the pandemic, Johnson’s expertise in compliance and cybersecurity made her a go-to adviser for clients forced to adapt as their practices went remote.

Johnson was in high demand as a panelist at industry events where she shared her expertise on the CARES Act and the buying and selling of distressed health care companies. Before joining McDonald Hopkins in 2015, Johnson was a health care attorney and senior consultant at a national legal-based health care management consulting firm. At McDonald Hopkins, Johnson also serves as chair of the firm’s wellness committee and is a member of the Women’s Council and Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

KATHERINE KIRKPATRICK Partner King & Spalding

Katherine Kirkpatrick is a partner in King & Spalding’s special matters and government investigations practice. She is considered a thought leader on anti-money laundering, cryptocurrency, blockchain-related compliance and cross-border investigations. She has worked with clients in multiple jurisdictions across Europe, Africa and Asia. She cochairs K&S’s Financial Services Industry Group, chairs its Chicago Women’s Alliance Group and is on its firmwide hiring committee. Kirkpatrick does pro bono work for the Illinois Torture Inquiry & Relief Commission, a state agency formed by the General Assembly to investigate claims of torture.

She’s an elected member of the board of directors of the Notre Dame Law Association and is active with Her Justice, a New York-based pro bono legal services organization that serves low-income women in family law and immigration matters.

ASHLEE KNUCKEY

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Partner Locke Lord

Pa K

Ashlee Knuckey is a member of Locke Lord’s board of directors and maintains a cross-functional practice handling litigation and regulatory matters, primarily in the health care, insurance and food industries. She was the lead counsel for the team representing WellCare in its $17.3 billion merger with Centene and a key contributor to the team that served as national insurance regulatory counsel to CVS Health in its acquisition of Aetna. Knuckey is chair of the Food, Beverage & Cosmetics Industry Group and a member of both the Attorney Development and Practice Development/ Marketing committees. She is a member of the Executives’ Club of Chicago and the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives. She was a long-standing member of the Women’s Auxiliary Board for the Ronald McDonald House.

Ja vi co ti

BARACK FERRAZZANO CONGRATULATES OUR PARTNERS RECOGNIZED AMONG THE 2021 CRAIN’S NOTABLE RISING STARS IN LAW

WE APPLAUD ALLISON POWERS & JACK SNYDER FOR THEIR LEADERSHIP, MENTORSHIP, AND COMMITMENT TO OUR FIRM AND THE LEGAL COMMUNITY Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP | T. 312.984.3100 | bfkn.com

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 21

JADE LAMBERT

MARCIE LAPE

BRIENNE LETOURNEAU

ELI LITOFF

YVETTE LOIZON

Partner King & Spalding

Partner Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom

Partner Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Partner Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila

Partner Clifford Law Offices

Brienne Letourneau represents businesses, institutions and individuals in complex litigation in a variety of substantive areas, including fiduciary litigation, asset management disputes, ERISA litigation, director and officer liability, consumer class actions, contract disputes and business torts. She has developed a practice focus on benefits-related class actions involving asset management and fiduciary liability, a rapidly growing field.

Letourneau is a leader of the firm’s Chicago Parents Group and member of its Women’s Professional Development Committee. She also co-chaired the firm’s inaugural summer program in Chicago, guiding thirteen summer associates along with numerous associates that she formally mentors. She also does pro bono work supporting the National Women’s Law Center and Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. Prior to joining Willkie in 2020, Letourneau was a partner at Jenner & Block.

Eli Litoff’s practice includes both civil—class actions and complex commercial litigation—and criminal cases, where he represents individuals and companies in government investigations and the prosecution of white-collar crime. He co-chairs RSHC’s associate mentoring program while also maintaining an extensive pro bono practice. He helped secure the release of two clients, each of whom spent more than two decades wrongfully incarcerated, and obtained a certificate of innocence for exoneree Eddie Bolden, who served 22 years for a crime he did not commit.

Bolden is now an employee of RSHC. A founding member of the ACLU of Illinois’ Next Generation Society board, Litoff “truly personifies the ideals of the legal profession by fighting for ‘justice for all,’ ” says Patricia Brown Holmes, RSHC’s managing partner.

Yvette Loizon brings a litigation background to Clifford Law Offices after serving in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for 12 years.

Today, her responsibilities include researching points of law that arise in the firm’s practice regarding substantive and procedural strategy. At Cook County, she managed cases ranging from investigation to litigation, including the first terrorism trial ever brought in state court.

She was a lead attorney in the first RICO prosecution in an Illinois state trial court and was cross-designated as a special U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Illinois, tasked with handling complex violent crime prosecutions. Prior to that she served as chief legal counsel for the Illinois State Police, where she oversaw its legal department and provided guidance on legal and legislative issues affecting law enforcement.

Jade Lambert represents individuals and corporations facing complex government investigations and enforcement actions, including those relating to workplace violence and workplace sexual misconduct.

Recently, she represented a public university in the internal investigation of alleged sexual and other misconduct by professor, a health care provider in a grand jury investigation and a gaming client in a regulatory matter with Illinois Gaming. Prior to joining K&S, she practiced at Perkins Coie, was chief of staff to the Illinois Reform Commission and clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum in the 7th Circuit. She has done extensive pro bono work on criminal records relief, earning gubernatorial pardons for eight clients. She formed the Momence Anti-Racist Coalition in her hometown, where she also recently chaired a Unity Day Event.

Marcie Lape represents corporate and individual clients in commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities class actions, shareholder derivative suits, and disputes relating to mergers and acquisitions and contracts. She co-led the representation of Fifth Third Bancorp in securing the dismissal of a putative securities class action filed in Chicago federal court. Promoted to partner in April 2020, Lape previously served as a law clerk to Judge Susan Black on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. She co-chaired Skadden’s Chicago Bar Foundation campaign in 2021, which raises money to support legal aid organizations.

She also serves on Skadden’s Appointments Committee, which selects partners to join Skadden’s Policy Committee, the firm’s governing body. She currently serves on the National Women’s Law Center’s Leadership Advisory Committee.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR HONOREES And all of Crain’s Chicago 2021 Notable Rising Stars in Law

ROBERT CHIDESTER

Vanessa Tiradentes

Partner, Corporate Practice

Partner, Litigation Practice

Complex World. Practical Solutions.®

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www.gouldratner.com

Member of LawExchange International

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22 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

DAVID LUGER Partner Katten Muchin Rosenman

As a partner in Katten’s financial markets litigation and enforcement practice, David Luger defends clients before numerous regulatory bodies, including the SEC, CFTC and FINRA in federal and state courts. He also represents clients in arbitration before FINRA and the National Futures Association. He has represented prisoners at FCI Oakdale in Louisiana, one of the federal prisons most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. His pro bono work includes advocacy for two clients seeking post-conviction relief from significant sentences, including one client asserting innocence.

Upon being awarded the Katten Pro Bono Service Award in 2020, Luger directed his $1,000 honorarium to the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, a nonprofit legal services organization that represents detained immigrant children in the U.S.

CHRISTINA CARRIERE LUTZ

ERIN MCADAMS FRANZBLAU

Partner Levenfeld Pearlstein

Partner Freeborn & Peters

Litigation partner Christina ­Carriere Lutz is chair of Levenfeld Pearlstein’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Task Force and has been instrumental in championing the firm’s diversity initiatives. She spearheaded the drafting, editing and adoption of a firmwide DEI operating plan and facilitated a partnership with the Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program to place women of color in summer associate roles and improve the pipeline from law school to associate to partner. “This plan is already having a far-reaching impact

Erin McAdams Franzblau litigates employment matters and advises employers on nearly every subspecialty of employment law, including M&A transactions. Her diverse practice ranges from litigating class actions for Fortune 100 companies and advising startups to representing executives in severance negotiations. Her recent cases include a summary judgment for an automotive employer in two matters alleging violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Family & Medical Leave Act. She also served as lead employment lawyer in various multimillion-dollar M&A transactions in the medical testing, automotive logistics and insurance industries. She is co-chair of the firm’s Women’s Leadership Council, a board member of the Federal Bar Association’s Chicago chapter, chair of the Younger Lawyer’s Division and co-chair of the Programming Committee.

on recruitment and retention, with a majority of our new hires in 2020 and 2021 identifying as women or diverse attorneys or professionals,” says Chairman and Managing Partner Robert A. Romanoff. Prior to her legal career, Lutz worked in television, including a stint as assistant to comedian George Carlin.

SETH MEYER

BOB MORGAN

ELIN PARK

Partner Keller Lenkner

Partner Benesch

Partner Jenner & Block

Seth Meyer’s practice focuses on antitrust, class-action, appellate and bankruptcy matters.

He has represented the state of Arizona and 18 municipalities in litigation related to the opioid crisis and is coordinating 41 class actions throughout the country against opioid defendants on behalf of insurance ratepayers. He is also part of the litigation team representing numerous states in antitrust litigation against Google for monopolizing products and services used by advertisers and publishers in online-display advertising. Before joining Keller Lenkner, Meyer was an attorney at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago and Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C. He is an adjunct professor at the Northwestern University Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences Center for Legal Studies and volunteers with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Jewish United Fund.

Bob Morgan is a health care regulatory and policy attorney with extensive experience in the cannabis industry, being one of the primary architects of the state’s medical cannabis program. As a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, he passed legislation to reduce health insurance costs, ensure telehealth is permanently available in Illinois and strengthen protections for behavioral health patients. In July, he was appointed vice chair of the Cannabis Law & Policy General Committee of the American Bar Association for the 2021-22 bar year, where he will participate in CLE programs, publish articles and help plan activities that enhance professional development, ethics and diversity.

Morgan is a longtime member of the Anti-Defamation League Midwest Regional Board and a board member of Equip for Equality.

Elin Park has extensive experience in complex commercial, consumer and class-action litigation. She represents financial institutions in a range of cases, including those involving asset-backed securities, asset management, bankruptcy and insurance-coverage disputes.

She also handles government investigations for a variety of industries. Recently, she’s been part of a team representing Fair Fight Action in a federal lawsuit against Georgia’s secretary of state and Board of Elections.

She was recognized for her successful representations of pro bono clients with awards from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Chicago chapter of the Federal Bar Association and the 7th Circuit Bar Association. She is president of the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago and vice president of the Korean American Bar Association of Chicago.

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DEI funding is ‘no longer smaller than the coffee budget’ Christina Carriere Lutz began her career in entertainment, including a stint as an assistant to legendary comedian George Carlin. Working in programming and trying to figure out licensing agreements, she figured that law school would enhance her career. When she got there, however, she was drawn to litigation and changed course.

As an attorney at Levenfeld Pearlstein, Lutz has advocated for diversity and inclusion, chairing the firm’s DEI task force and working to improve the recruiting of lawyers from diverse backgrounds, as well as their retention and advancement to partner.

CRAIN’S: You’ve been practicing since 2008—what did diversity look like then?

LUTZ: I began my career during a period when law firms put recruiting and retention of diverse attorneys on hold to contend with the recession.

Only 2% of attorneys in law firms around that time were women of color, according to the National Association for Law Placement.

And today?

Unfortunately, the numbers haven’t moved much since then, and the disparities are particularly stark at the more senior levels in law firms. In 2020, only 2.1% of partners were Black, with less than 1% of partners being Black women, and only about 10% of partners are people of color. The numbers are not much better for openly LGBTQ+ partners or differently abled partners. Back in 2008, I was lucky enough to join a firm with an unusually diverse class of associates, and in my litigation group, approximately a third of the associates were women of color. I relied on their insight and companionship, and I value those relationships to this day.

What has improved?

The biggest improvement is recognition. We no longer need to make the business case for

diversity. People understand that if you want your law firm to be sustainable in the long term, you need to ensure that it looks like the world we live in. People are willing to invest their resources as a result. Budgets for DEI initiatives are no longer smaller than the coffee budget. People recognize now the power of inertia and that it takes an investment to move the needle.

What are the biggest obstacles to overcome?

Law firms often operate in siloed fashion, and people gravitate towards working with people who remind them of themselves. That extends to opportunities to work on interesting deals or cases, with important clients, or to go on pitches, client lunches or networking opportunities. This ultimately can result in unequal experience levels when it comes time for promotion and poor retention of diverse attorneys who feel they are not having the same experience as other associates.

How do you disrupt that cycle?

Breaking out of this convention requires thinking mindfully about how you incorporate more junior attorneys into your daily practice and whether you are equitably extending opportunities for informal mentorship.

What specifically did you do in entertainment, and what was it like to work for George Carlin?

After working for George Carlin, I worked in television for several years, first as an assistant and then in programming. I have so many great memories of George; he was one of those unique souls who was even funnier in person than he was on stage, which is saying something! We shared a love of words (George was famous for his monologue about the seven words you can never say on television).

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 23

TANVI PATEL

ALLISON POWERS

JAMES C. PULLOS

SIMONE A. RANDOLPH

SARAH BETH RIZZO

Partner Neal Gerber Eisenberg

Partner Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg

Partner Clifford Law Offices

Partner Thompson Hine

James C. Pullos’ practice areas include personal injury, wrongful death, civil rights, medical malpractice, trucking matters, motor vehicle collisions and other claims.

In recent months, he’s also worked on business interruption cases, helping business owners who paid insurance premiums for coverage for claims regarding the sudden financial business losses or closures suffered because of the pandemic, only to find their insurers denying them reimbursement. He has tried more than 50 cases to verdict and hundreds of bench trials and hearings in federal and state courts. He served 14 years in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, preparing numerous state and federal appellate briefs and presenting oral arguments before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Most notably, he represented police officers from the Cook County sheriff’s office in civil lawsuits in federal court.

Simone A. Randolph, a partner in Thompson Hine’s real estate practice, focuses on complex commercial real estate and finance transactions, with experience in syndicated, mezzanine and construction financing.

She has represented lender clients, including many Chicago-based banks, in more than 1,000 middle-market financings throughout the country, closing more than $500 million in multifamily, industrial, retail, office and commercial asset transactions in just the last two years. She also advises Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprises in structur-

Partner Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom

Tanvi Patel handles all aspects of intellectual property law, including patent and trademark litigation, patent prosecution and client counseling related to noninfringement and patent enforcement.

In addition to managing global patent portfolios, Patel frequently leads strategy in patent and trademark litigation.

She is a member of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion committee and the Women’s Network Leadership Team, and she is co-chair of the Hiring Committee. Before joining Neal Gerber Eisenberg, Patel worked as an attorney at McAndrews Held &

Allison Powers defends employers against class and single-plaintiff claims of discrimination and harassment in lawsuits and in enforcement agency actions under federal and state laws. She joined Barack Ferrazzano’s business litigation and its luxury, fashion and retail practices in September 2020, charged with expanding the firm’s labor and employment law capabilities. She serves on the firm’s DEI and Business Development committees and on several special committees in her role as firm counsel. Powers’ pro bono practice includes representing

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Malloy; prior to practicing law, she earned a degree in electrical engineering and worked at Caterpillar. She regularly volunteers with Equip for Equality and the Second Chances clinic.

immigrants seeking asylum and other relief under immigration laws, veterans seeking benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs and branches of the armed forces, and first-time homebuyers formerly housed in Chicago Housing Authority units.

ing joint venture agreements and works with women- and minority-owned businesses in successfully preparing and submitting certification applications.

Sarah Beth Rizzo represents clients in various tax-free and taxable acquisitions, dispositions, financings, spinoffs and restructurings. Among notable recent cases were a reverse spinoff of a $10.4 billion portfolio of apartment communities into AIR, an independent, publicly traded umbrella partnership real estate investment trust; the spinoff of certain telecommunications network assets into an independent, publicly traded REIT; and the tax-free spinoff of certain real estate assets into a separate, publicly traded REIT. Rizzo was named a partner of the firm this year, and she currently serves as a chair for the Chicago Summer Associate committee.

She also is a board member and treasurer for One on One Chicago, which works to affirm the self-reliance of underserved individuals and families through meaningful work.

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Katten is proud to congratulate our partners

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Charles DeVore and David Luger on their recognition among the Crain’s Chicago Business 2021 Notable Rising Stars in Law.

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

katten.com

CENTURY CITY | CHARLOTTE | CHICAGO | DALLAS | LOS ANGELES | NEW YORK | ORANGE COUNTY | SHANGHAI | WASHINGTON, DC LONDON: KATTEN MUCHIN ROSENMAN UK LLP | ATTORNEY ADVERTISING

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24 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

JASON ROMICK

DANIEL SAEEDI

BRIAN SALVI

SARA SHANTI

MARK A. SILVERMAN

J

Partner Levenfeld Pearlstein

Partner Taft Stettinius & Hollister

Partner Salvi Schostok & Pritchard

Partner Benesch

Member Dykema Gossett

Jason Romick concentrates his practice on mergers, acquisitions and other strategic transactions, with a particular focus on the insurance brokerage industry.

In addition, he has extensive experience representing middle-market asset managers, finance companies and institutional investors in structuring, negotiating and documenting opportunistic private-equity co-investments. After serving as a law clerk to federal Judge Milton Shadur and practicing as a corporate attorney at Sidley Austin and Levenfeld Pearlstein, Romick joined Hub

Daniel Saeedi handles issues relating to employment law, unfair competition and data privacy, representing clients in trade secrets and restrictive covenants disputes around the country. He also litigates complex class-action cases in the realm of computer fraud, privacy law and biometric face recognition technology. He is a certified information privacy professional, a designation that’s recognized around the world. He’s also the CLE instructor for the Illinois State Bar Association’s programming on restrictive covenants and trade secrets, and in the context of multidisciplinary skills such as drafting, consulting and litigation best practices. Saeedi is an active member of Taft’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and regularly provides implicit bias CLE training to hundreds of lawyers each year.

Brian Salvi represents victims of medical malpractice, catastrophic personal injury and product liability. Among recent highlights, he won a $9 million jury verdict in November even though closing arguments suddenly switched to remote on the last day of trial due to a spike in COVID numbers. He and his team had to quickly pivot to ensure they still presented a compelling argument via Zoom.

He is a Chicago advisory board member of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, an organization committed to finding a cure for chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Salvi also supports Horizons for Youth, Chicago’s only organization that provides need-based scholarships, comprehensive support programs and educational resources to students of all academic ability levels.

A member of the Benesch Healthcare+ practice group, Sara Shanti represents health care providers and technology companies in matters related to data privacy and security, health care regulatory compliance and mergers and acquisitions. She provides counsel on digital health innovations including artificial intelligence, breaches and data controls, mobile applications and telemedicine. She co-founded her firm’s COVID-19 response team and advised providers on multiple emergency use authorization submissions as they treated patients throughout the pandemic.

Her work helped many patients continue to see their doctors via telemedicine. Shanti also helped her clients navigate data security incidents and manage audits and regulatory inquiries from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General and state agencies. She serves as an active court-appointed guardian ad litem for minor children in Cook County.

Mark A. Silverman is a co-leader of the firm’s national commercial mortgage-backed securities special servicer group, leader of the firm’s nationwide Technology Advisory Committee, and a member of the firm’s financial industry group.

He has represented several of the nation’s largest CMBS special servicers in contested foreclosure litigation, guarantor litigation and bankruptcy matters involving assets located in Illinois and around the country. His commercial foreclosure and workout experience spans many sectors. including hotel, retail and assets like airports and taxi medallions. Silverman routinely handles post-judgment collections and fraudulent transfers.

Prior to joining Dykema, he was a judicial extern with U.S. District Judge Arlander Keys. He is a member of the Turnaround Management Association’s DE&I committee.

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International, ultimately serving as vice president, chief M&A counsel and deputy general counsel. He rejoined Levenfeld Pearlstein as a partner in 2020 and co-leads the expansion of the firm’s insurance brokerage M&A specialty practice.

CHAMPIONS.

Tanvi Patel and Eric Choi exemplify Neal Gerber Eisenberg’s commitment to our clients, colleagues, and the communities we serve. Their dedication to service and inclusivity and their exemplary legal skills are true hallmarks of future leaders in the Chicago legal community.

LEADERS.

Congratulations to Tanvi and Eric on this well-deserved recognition as two of Crain’s 2021 Notable Rising Stars in Law.

ADVISORS.

www.nge.com

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 25

JACK SNYDER

JONATHAN SOLOMON

ERIC SWIBEL

Partner and assistant general counsel Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg

Partner Latham & Watkins

Partner Latham & Watkins

A partner in Latham’s M&A and private-equity practices, Jonathan Solomon advises private-equity funds, family offices and their portfolio companies, and public and private companies on complex domestic and cross-border transactions.

He also chairs the Chicago Corporate Department and is vice chair of the firm’s retail and consumer products industry group. Solomon recently has been advising semiconductor company AMD in its $35 billion acquisition of Xilinx, and he regularly represents various Pritzker family business interests. He also represented Madison Dearborn Partners in its investment into Evo Payment Solutions. Solomon began his legal career as an associate at Cravath Swaine & Moore in New York. He supports Lurie Children’s Hospital and PAWS and is a member of Chabad Lincoln Park.

Eric Swibel represents global clients in litigation in federal and state courts, government investigations, internal investigations and arbitrations. As co-chair of the Chicago office’s 60-member Litigation & Trial Department, he successfully led a team representing Camping World Holdings and several of the company’s officers and directors in three securities class actions and four derivative suits (still pending) in five federal and state courts. He also tried no fewer than five JAMS commercial arbitrations during the pandemic. Prior to joining Latham & Watkins as an associate in 2009, Swibel clerked for U.S. District Judge William O’Kelley in Georgia. He’s a member of the Host Committee for the Honeycomb Project, a Chicago organization for family volunteering.

As a partner in the firm’s litigation and motor vehicle practices, Jack Snyder is a first-chair trial lawyer who also advises clients on regulatory compliance, commercial contracts and product distribution strategies in multiple industries. He was a key member of the team that secured dismissal of all claims against a firm client in a multibillion-dollar nationwide lawsuit arising out of the Chicago Tribune’s leveraged buyout.

When COVID-related business issues emerged in early 2020, he

pivoted to the ensuing landlord-tenant disputes. Snyder was also a leading member of the team that built the firm’s database of COVID-related analysis and public orders for use as a resource throughout the pandemic.

w LAWYERS BY THE NUMBERS U.S. ESTIMATES FOR LAWYERS, MAY 2020

658,120

$71.59

lawyers

Mean hourly wage

$148,910 Mean annual wage

METRO AREAS WITH THE MOST LAWYERS, MAY 2020 Metro area

Number of lawyers Hourly mean wage Annual mean wage

New York

81,650

$86.62

$180,160

Washington, D.C.

43,990

$89.46

$186,070

Los Angeles

38,390

$86.64

$180,220

Chicago

27,320

$76.45

$159,010

Philadelphia

18,880

$73.14

$152,130

NUMBER OF LAWYERS IN ILLINOIS 70,000

62,720: A 4.4% increase from 2011

60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0

‘11

‘12

‘13

‘14

‘15

‘16

‘17

‘18

‘19

‘20

‘21

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Bar Association

Stradley Ronon proudly congratulates our own Mark R. Greer on being named a 2021 Notable Rising Star in Law

by Crain’s Chicago Business

Counseling clients since 1926, Stradley Ronon attorneys have helped asset management companies and funds, private and public companies — from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations — achieve their goals by providing pragmatic, value-driven legal counsel. With seven offices and more than 200 attorneys, our responsive team seamlessly addresses the full spectrum of our clients’ needs, ranging from sophisticated corporate transactions to complex commercial litigation. www.stradley.com | Philadelphia | Chicago | Washington | New York

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26 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

VANESSA TIRADENTES

JOANNA TRAVALINI

NILOFER UMAR

ANDREW VOUZIERS

Partner Gould & Ratner

Partner Winston & Strawn

Partner Sidley Austin

Partner Sidley Austin

Admitted to practice in four states, Vanessa Tiradentes represents businesses and individuals in all phases of commercial litigation in federal and state courts.

This experience includes handling allegations of breach of fiduciary duty, business divorces, contract disputes and indemnification claims. She also assists clients with construction matters, including contractor disputes, breach of warranty claims and insurance coverage issues. Tiradentes was appointed chair of the Judges Initiative Committee of the ABA Business Law Section in September 2020.

She’s also served as editor for the

Joanna Travalini’s litigation practice is concentrated on regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, securities matters, corporate internal investigations and complex commercial disputes. She draws from her licensure as a certified public accountant and experience in public accounting in representing clients. Shortly after the pandemic hit, the focus of her practice shifted to government-facing matters before the Justice Department and Securities & Exchange Commission. Travalini is chair of Winston’s Summer Program and a member of the firm’s Hiring & Recruitment Committee, and she runs its on-campus recruiting program at Northwestern University. She works with the National Immigrant Justice Center; she’s also involved with immigration cases, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals matters and U-Visa applications. She is a member of the ABA’s Professional Liability Litigation Committee, where she prepares roundtables and publishes materials.

Nilofer Umar leads Sidley teams representing corporations, directors and officers in securities class actions, shareholder derivative suits, M&A litigation and special committee investigations.

In the past 18 months she’s defended some of the country’s biggest corporations, including NiSource, Brunswick and Walgreens and directors of Allstate and Coty. She is active within Sidley’s Chicago litigation group in promoting associate development and holds positions on the firm’s Diversity and Summer Associate committees as well as the Harvard Law recruiting team. Umar is on the leadership committee and is the programming co-chair for the 2021 annual meeting of the National Association of Women Lawyers. She has served on the board of CARPLS, Cook County’s largest provider of free legal services since 2019; she’s also on the board of Kohl Children’s Museum.

Andrew Vouziers represents investment banks, direct lenders, sponsors, commercial banks and borrowers in the structuring and negotiation of complex financial transactions. He is a primary Sidley relationship partner for lending work for JPMorgan and MUFG Bank, and his work includes cross-border deals in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia. He also structures and negotiates debt facilities with environmental, social and governance incentives for companies across all industries, including green and sustainability-linked loans. At Sidley, he is on the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and spearheaded the firm’s Hispanic Heritage Roundtable. Vouziers co-chairs the Financial Services Forum of the Executives’ Club of Chicago, and he recently joined the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Metro Chicago. He is on the board of the Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund of Illinois.

ABA Business Law Section’s “The Business Courts Benchbook: Procedures and Best Practices in Business and Commercial Cases,” published in 2019. Most recently, she became co-president of Harvard University’s Latino Alumni Alliance. She’s also been deputy general counsel and an affiliate representative of the Hispanic National Bar Association.

BRIAN O’CONNOR WATSON Partner Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila

Brian O’Connor Watson represents clients in litigation and trial across the nation. Over the past 12 months, he has resolved nearly 100 cases successfully for clients, while also managing ongoing litigation for clients nationally, including multiple mass and proposed class actions for environmental contamination. He also serves on the recruiting and associate development committee at the firm, mentoring dozens of associates formally as well as through the Illinois Supreme Court’s Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program. Before joining RSHC, he was assistant special prosecutor with Special Prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes in connection with the killing of Laquan McDonald. Watson serves the community through Habitat for Humanity, the All Stars Project Development School for Youth, Just the Beginning, Legal Prep Charter Academy and My Block, My Hood, My City.

ADAM WEXNER

JAYA WHITE

TINA WILLS

MICHAEL R. WILSON

JEFFREY ZANCHELLI

Partner Kirkland & Ellis

Partner, health law practice group Quarles & Brady

Partner Freeborn & Peters

Partner Locke Lord

Partner DLA Piper

Adam Wexner’s practice focuses on advising private-equity funds and their portfolio companies on complex business transactions. He has structured, negotiated and closed M&A transactions ranging from less than $100 million to more than $3 billion. Among highlights of the past 18 months, he served as lead counsel for Pritzker Private Capital in its recapitalization of ProAmpac and in its acquisition of Energy Distribution Partners; for Aterian Investment Partners-backed Bright International in its acquisition of Bocchi Laboratories; and for Warburg Pincus in its $150 million financing of Aura. Wexner began his career as an associate at Latham & Watkins before joining Kirkland in 2015. He was promoted to Kirkland’s share partnership this year. He’s a founding member of the Impact Council at A Better Chicago, a venture-philanthropy fund.

Jaya White is the Chicago office chair of the firm’s health law practice group and co-chair of the long-term care team. She advises health care clients on regulatory compliance and transactional issues, with a focus on senior housing providers such as skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. White is a member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity and was selected by the firm as a fellow in 2017. She has published articles and presented on growing regulatory issues affecting LTC providers, including the use of cameras and social media in LTC, closing facilities and cannabis use in LTC. White serves in a pro bono capacity on a technology committee for nonprofit Thresholds, which provides services to individuals with mental health and substance abuse disorders.

Tina Wills oversees all aspects of complex commercial matters, from day-to-day management of associates and staff to drafting major briefs, developing case analysis and communicating strategy with clients. In recent months she has defeated several critical motions on behalf of her clients, including motions for a preliminary injunction, dispositive motions including motions to dismiss and to determine arbitrability of claims.

She also prevailed at trial in an action to reform contract terms, successfully barring most of the defendant’s affirmative defense before trial and using the defendant’s own expert in her client’s case-in-chief at trial. She is on Freeborn’s Women’s Leadership Council as a member of its pro bono and mentorship committees. She is actively involved with the National Immigrant Justice Center, successfully advocating through trial for two detained clients seeking asylum.

Michael R. Wilson focuses his corporate transactional practice in four primary areas: M&A, debt finance, venture capital and fund formation.

He advises private-equity funds, startup companies and banks.

He’s also developed a “niche offering,” advising small business investment companies through transactions. Significant recent deals include representing Vix, an ad-supported streaming service, in its acquisition by Univision; Chicago Pacific Founders in its $30 million Series A investment in Tredence; XSell Technologies in taking an equity investment from Sageview Capital; and GainSystems in a minority growth investment from Francisco Partners. He also led Locke Lord’s Paycheck Protection Program team, providing advice to hundreds of clients amid COVID-19. Wilson is a member of the Executives’ Club of Chicago, serving as a mentor for “early risers” in the club’s EC Associates Program.

Jeffrey “Jeff” Zanchelli represents real estate fund sponsors and other real estate owners and operators in a variety of corporate transactions, including the formation and structuring of real estate private-equity funds, management entities and joint ventures. He represents both non-U.S. clients on inbound real estate investments throughout the United States as well as U.S.-based clients focused on real estate investment opportunities in Canada, Europe and the U.K. Significant recent deals include serving as counsel to real estate private-equity company Harrison Street in its $720 million sale of three Cambridge, Mass.-based life sciences properties to Healthpeak Properties.

Zanchelli and his family support the Michael J. Fox Foundation, dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease. He has also worked on the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights’ Law Project.

P013-P026_CCB_20210906.indd 26

9/3/21 2:18 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 27

City’s tallest and most recognizable building stares down a leasing challenge WILLIS from Page 1

A TOWERING ICON Sept. 11, 2001: The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City prompts the evacuation of Chicago’s Sears Tower. The property beefs up security in the following days.

2001

2002

April 2002: Goldman Sachs, one of the tower’s largest tenants, nears a deal to leave the building for a newly proposed tower at 71 S. Wacker Drive.

P027_CCB_20210906.indd 27

2003

EQ OFFICE

business district, the city’s tallest and most recognizable building by its size alone could feel the impact more than most. And the specter of widespread downsizing as companies adjust to a post-COVID world—illustrated already by United Airlines cutting almost 20% of its space in the tower—looms for Blackstone Group, the private-equity giant that is spending more than half a billion dollars modernizing and expanding the building.

It’s still far from clear whether the pandemic will ultimately sting the property at 233 S. Wacker Drive as much and for as long as 9/11 did. But it frames the symbol of the city’s skyline as a bellwether for the broader Chicago office market—a role it has often played over the past half-century—and complicates the task ahead for Blackstone as it seeks to recoup its massive investment in a landscape that could favor tenants for several years.

“Everyone’s dealing with the same kind of issue. They’re just dealing with it at three-and-a-half times the size of almost anyone else,” says leasing veteran Danny Nikitas, who oversaw leasing at the 3.8 million-square-foot tower for three years before 9/11 and is now a principal at brokerage Avison Young.

The 110-story icon has marked most major shifts in the Chicago area’s office landscape since its debut in 1973, when it planted the seeds that would turn Wacker Drive and the broader West Loop into a corporate destination. Sears’ departure in the early 1990s for Hoffman Estates signaled the suburban corporate ascent that defined that decade. The tower symbolized the plight of high-rise office buildings in the years after 9/11. Then came 2009, when United agreed to relocate its 2,800-jobs operation center to the building from Elk Grove Township—a move that helped set off a decadelong suburbs-to-city trend and eventually led to Blackstone paying $1.3 billion for the tower in 2015, the most ever paid at the time for a U.S. office building outside of New York.

United’s more recent disclosure that it would exercise an option to shed about 150,000 square feet after sweeping layoffs in 2020 could be the latest harbinger, albeit an

A 300,000-square-foot building with a rooftop deck has been added around Willis Tower’s lower floors. Owner Blackstone’s nearly $700 million renovation also spruced up the building’s fitness center and lounge spaces.

TROUBLE AHEAD?

Among the potential leasing challenges ahead for Willis Tower: Four tenants that account for more than half a million square feet combined—namesake Willis Group Holdings, law firms Seyfarth Shaw and Dentons, and trading firm IMC—have options to either contract their space or terminate their leases over the next four years, according to documents tied to a previous loan on the property that was sold off to commercial mortgage-backed securities investors.

“Everybody is looking at their footprint, looking at the way they work and their (office) requirement,” says Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Chris Wood, a longtime downtown tenant rep.

“For Willis, based on the size of the asset and sheer numbers, they’ll face more of those conversations than most owners.”

DARRIS HARRIS

ominous one of coming tenant retrenchment. Companies collectively vacated more downtown office space during the second quarter than they did in any full year on record, according to data from real estate services firm CBRE. And the amount of downtown office space available on the sublease market continues to hover near a record high as tenants have sought to offload unneeded space.

Blackstone also is in the midst of a five-year project to modernize the tower’s roughly 100 elevators to try to address the cumbersome process of navigating the massive building.

Yet the tower, which brokerage Telos Group says is roughly 95% leased today, is also well positioned to compete for companies’ attention, tenant reps say. It’s part of a southwest corner of the Loop that was surging with office demand before the pandemic and has undergone a nearly $700 million renovation. Blackstone, which declined through a spokesman to comment on the tower’s future leasing prospects, has spruced up the building’s fitness center and lounge spaces, added a 300,000-square-foot building with a rooftop deck around the tower’s lower floors and is in the midst of a five-year project to modernize its roughly 100 elevators to try to address the cumbersome process of navigating the building.

Those improvements could prove invaluable as the pandemic subsides and companies vie to convince their workers to come back to the office after adjusting to life working from home, Wood says.

“It’s ‘Here’s what you get that you don’t get going from your living room to your bedroom,’ “ he says. “I think Willis is very well positioned to help employers do that and make that argument.”

Unlike the months following 9/11, when security-fearing tenants including Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch began heading for the Sears Tower exits and quickly drove up vacancy in the building, the pandemic’s full impact on tenant decision-making is still blurry 18 months into the

crisis. Just like predictions were wrong that tenants would permanently shun high-rise offices after 2001, some companies may eventually recommit to the same office footprints they had before.

Among the omens boosting landlords’ confidence: Kraft Heinz in July renewed its lease at Aon Center for nearly the same 170,000-square-foot office it has had since 2015. And demand has roared back this summer for downtown apartments, typically a leading indicator for the strength of the office market.

Whether that means companies will pay some of the highest rents in the city for Willis Tower offices is a different story, says Allen Rogoway, managing principal in the Chicago office of tenant representation firm Cresa. Many of his clients viewed the building as a value option before Blackstone bought it, with all-in rents totaling less than $40 per square foot—a remnant of the previous owners slashing rents to retain and recruit tenants in the post9/11 years. Now the same gross rents in the building are closer to $55 per square foot, which could be trickier to command when tenants are flush with good options downtown.

“The money has already been put in, and they’ve got to get it back,” says Rogoway, who represented the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning when it signed a deal in 2019 to leave Willis Tower for the redeveloped Old Post Office. “It’s going to be tough for them to make it competitive.”

Still, Blackstone has proven it will flex its financial muscle to land tenants. Brokers say the firm has offered hefty amounts of cash to tenants to build out their offices, among other concessions to convince companies to agree to pay a premium rent.

“The deep pockets of Blackstone allows them to do anything they want to do relative to financial aspects of dealmaking,” says Jones Lang LaSalle veteran tenant rep Steve Stratton, who represented Morgan Stanley when the financial firm became the tower’s fourth-largest tenant in 2017. “If they think there is someone out there that will be a good backfill (for vacated space), they’ll go do the math to fill it.”

From 9/11 to the COVID-19 pandemic, Willis Tower has endured more than just a name change.

August 2002: Merrill Lynch signs a new lease at 1 N. Wacker Drive, pulling most of its local offices out of Sears Tower.

2004

2005

October 2003: After losing another tenant and in danger of more defections, Sears Tower ownership slashes rents by as much as 33% from 2001 levels.

April 2004: A venture of New York investors Joseph Chetrit and Joseph Moinian and Skokie-based American Landmark Properties buys Sears Tower for $840 million.

2006

April 2005: The tower’s vacancy rate reaches 25%, up from just 5% in early 2001.

2007

2008

January 2007: Law firm Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney leases 64,000 square feet in the former Merrill Lynch office, Sears Tower’s largest new tenant since 2001.

2009

December 2008: After Sears Tower retains Bank of America and Schiff Hardin and inks new deals with smaller tenants, Ernst & Young signs a lease to move to a new Wacker Drive tower and vacate its nearly 390,000-square-foot Sears Tower office.

2010

August 2009: United Airlines leases 450,000 square feet in the tower, where it relocates its 2,800-person operations center from Elk Grove Township.

2011

2012

March 2009: Willis Towers Watson leases 140,000 square feet in the building, a deal that includes naming rights.

The skyscraper is renamed Willis Tower in July.

2013

August 2012: United signs a new lease to move its headquarters to Willis Tower and extends its lease at the skyscraper by two years to 2028.

2014

April 2014: Law firm Seyfarth Shaw signs a 15-year lease for nearly 200,000 square feet at Willis Tower, lowering the skyscraper’s vacancy rate to below 10%.

2015

February 2017: Blackstone unveils a $500 million-plus plan to renovate Willis Tower and drastically expand its lower floors.

2016

March 2015: A venture led

by New York private-equity giant Blackstone Group buys Willis Tower for $1.3 billion, at the time the highest price ever paid for a U.S. office building outside of New York.

2017

2018

March 2019: United extends its lease for about 850,000 square feet at Willis Tower by five years through March 2033.

2019

January 2018: Blackstone strikes a deal with Morgan Stanley to relocate its Chicago office to the building, ultimately making the financial giant the tower’s fourth-largest tenant.

2020

March 2020: COVID-19 pandemic begins

2021

January 2021: United announces it will cut its footprint in the tower by 17% in early 2022 after sweeping cuts to its workforce in 2020.

9/3/21 4:02 PM

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Treating employee burnout in the COVID ward BURNOUT from Page 1 workers to donate unused paid time off to colleagues who need a break.

In the midst of a health care workforce shortage and another COVID surge, hospitals that don’t do more to help employees cope risk losing workers at a time when they need top talent more than ever. About 77% of 1,150 hospitals that responded to a recent nationwide survey by benefits consultancy Aon say employee burnout and workforce resiliency are a top concern this year.

Experts say measures that help employees balance the pressures of daily life with an increasingly intense and demanding workload can make a big difference.

“Things that seem mundane are critical to supporting and keeping health care workers in the workforce,” says Dr. Laura Zimmermann, Rush University Medical Group’s director of clinical preventive medicine and co-founder of the Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team, or IMPACT, which advocates for health care workers. “If I don’t have to worry about PTO or child care—or whether I’m going to get fired if I stay home with my kid—that allows me to redirect my energy to other things.”

ENCOURAGEMENT

Rush University System for Health, a three-hospital chain, allows staffers to work from home when possible, encourages them to take paid days off and provides back-up child care through a partnership with Bright Horizons.

Additionally, Rush’s Center for Clinical Wellness, which offers workers unlimited access to free counseling services, is up to at least 75 visits per week, says Eve Poczatek, who leads wellness initiatives at Rush.

“We want to encourage folks to think of mental health as something to incorporate into their daily routine, like physical exercise,” Poczatek says. “The goal is to take preventative measures so you don’t reach that point of crisis in the first place. . . .It’s going to take time. We’re undoing years of a stiff-upper-lip culture.”

NorthShore University Health­ System, with six hospitals, added 200 entry-level support workers so nurses and patient care technicians could focus more on patients than administrative duties, says Joyce Milewski, assistant vice president of human resources. NorthShore has also launched clinical internship programs in the lab and other areas of its hospitals to encourage more people to get into health care.

One of the area’s largest chains, 26-hospital Advocate Aurora Health, is using transcription services to help workers do their jobs more efficiently.

Chief Nursing Officer Mary Beth Kingston says Advocate makes a point of asking front-line workers what changes would be most meaningful to them.

“Sometimes that’s compen- certain days has helped her sation, and we certainly look at manage pandemic stress. But that as well,” she says. some days are hard no matter But not all hospitals can af- what, like when she learns that ford comprehensive wellness longtime patients didn’t return programs or additional staff. her calls because they died of Some in medically underserved COVID. and rural communities are hop“It wasn’t my personal trauing that $103 million in American ma,” Rotolo says, “but every Rescue Plan funding will help day at work you’re feeling and them establish mental health re- absorbing the pain of your pasources for front-line staff. Cook tients.”

County Health, which operates Outside of work, many health two hospitals, says it plans to ap- care workers like Rotolo have ply for funds. turned to informal industry supAt a time when local hospi- port groups to express fears of tals are seeing more people call getting COVID-19 or infecting in sick and request leaves of family and friends, the stress of absence, those that are able to juggling household responsibilsupport workers’ mental health ities, and feelings of burnout or could find it easier to recruit and compassion fatigue from witretain staff. nessing other people’s trauma.

About 29% of health care workers said they’ve considered leavRELUCTANCE ing the profession, according to Many feel that outside support a March survey of 1,327 workers is all they have. by the Kaiser Family Foundation Some nurses at Amita Health and the Washington Post.

St. Joseph Medical Center, for Separately, a survey of more example, won’t use the organizathan 5,000 University of Utah tion’s behavioral health services Health workers found that about for fear that their personal in21% have considered leaving the formation could be used against workforce during the pandemic, them, says Pat Meade, a regisand 30% said they’ve considered tered nurse at the Joliet hospital. working fewer hours.

Beyond that offering, Meade says Many of the University of nurses were sent journals this Utah Health workers reported year and encouraged to write that knowing their schedule one down their thoughts about the month in advance, the oppor- pandemic. tunity to work from home and “It was insulting,” says Meade, having a supervisor who under- a member of the Illinois Nursstands work-life struggles would es Association labor union. “In help balance personal and pro- some scenarios that would probfessional responsibilities during the pandemic, according to an analysis “THINGS THAT SEEM MUNDANE of the data published this ARE CRITICAL TO SUPPORTING AND year in JAMA Network Open.

KEEPING HEALTH CARE WORKERS “Health systems must develop effective strat- IN THE WORKFORCE.” egies to ensure that the Dr. Laura Zimmermann, workplace acknowledges Rush University Medical Group and supports employees during this unprecedented time, ably be a good thing, but most not only within the work envi- people don’t want to use it beronment, but also in managing cause they’re still living through unanticipated childcare respon- it. It’s not like (the pandemic) is sibilities,” the analysis said. “In over.” doing so, health systems will imAmita spokesman Tim Nelson prove the likelihood of retaining says “any interaction with our generations of well-trained clini- behavioral health counselors cians, scientists, and staff.” or chaplains remains confidential.” He notes that many of the system’s 19 hospitals have “reSTRESS Women in medicine, particu- laxation rooms” equipped with larly those with young children, massage chairs and “instruction are managing a tremendous on spiritual self-care exercises.”

Employer support becomes amount of stress, says Dr. Eve Bloomgarden, an endocrinologist even more crucial as the panat Northwestern Memorial Hospi- demic rages and health care workers continue treating setal and IMPACT co-founder.

“We don’t have vaccine for kids riously ill patients, many of (under 12), we’ve been knee- whom are not vaccinated against deep in school board meetings COVID-19. The phenomenon for the last year, there’s online only adds to burnout and comharassment when you try and passion fatigue, workers and talk about it,” says Bloomgarden, hospitals say.

If there’s an upside, it’s that who has two kids under 7. “This is not unique to medicine. some hospitals say the pandemic What’s unique to medicine is the has forced them to address burnextraordinary amount of burn- out differently and view worker out that predated COVID and well-being in a new way.

Even as the pandemic exacthe undue burden of taking care of humanity that has happened erbated long-standing flaws in health care, Zimmermann says, over the last 18 months.”

Shannon Rotolo, a clinical it also “highlighted that there are pharmacy specialist at the Uni- some simple concrete things that versity of Chicago Medicine, says can be done by systems to allevithe ability to work from home ate burnout.”

9/3/21 4:00 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 29

Is an ad campaign to woo techies working?

P33 from Page 3 said it was a “small pilot in terms of media spend” and that it was funded by P33 and World Business Chicago, the city’s economic development arm.

“This effort is about driving awareness of Chicago’s amazing tech momentum,” said Penny Pritzker, who was commerce secretary under President Barack Obama and now runs her own investment firm, PSP Partners. “Chicago has been punching below its weight in terms of the recognition of the tech potential, as well as the reality of what’s going on in Chicago in the technology world.”

Over the past several years, data points to evidence that Chicago’s

year, which allows startup staffs and valuations to grow.

In the first half of 2021, local tech companies raised $3.8 billion; that already eclipses last year’s total, which was the highest since 2014.

Data from WBC also shows that 11 Chicago startup companies have reached “unicorn” status in 2021, an industry term for companies valued at over $1 billion.

SEEING OPPORTUNITY

Kathryn Finney, an entrepreneur and investor known for launching Digitalundivided and #ProjectDiane, and her husband, Tobias Wright, a software engineer at Microsoft, moved to Chicago this year from Atlanta, though not because of P33 ads. Besides having family in the area, they each saw opportunity in Chicago “IT’S NEVER BEEN A PROBLEM TO as the local tech industry grown.

RECRUIT (STUDENTS). THE PROBLEM has“One of the hesitaIS TO KEEP THEM HERE AFTER THEY tions for Chicago for us for a long time was there GRADUATE.” wasn’t a lot of tech here,” Finney said. “Having a Rashid Bashir, dean, Grainger College of husband who is an enEngineering at the University of Illinois at gineer and me being in Urbana-Champaign the startup world, there wasn’t a lot going on tech scene is growing, with 2021 and that limited our ability to move shaping up to be a defining year here.”

Historically, about half of the for local startups. PitchBook and National Venture Capital Associa- computer science and engineertion figures show that local com- ing students at the University of panies have been raising record Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a amounts of venture capital this top-ranked computer engineering

school, have left the state after graduating, according to school data.

“It’s never been a problem to recruit (students). The problem is to keep them here after they graduate,” said Rashid Bashir, the dean of the Grainger College of Engineering at UIUC. “That clearly has to do with the jobs that are available.”

As a smaller tech economy, Chicago has fewer software and engineering positions, especially at high-profile firms like Facebook, LinkedIn or Google. WBC has worked to get nearly 90 companies to move their headquarters to or open offices in Chicago in 2021 by touting the region’s talent coming from Big 10 universities and the lower cost of living compared with the coasts, says WBC CEO Michael Fassnacht.

Tegus, a business intelligence company that moved to Chicago from San Francisco three years ago, just signed a lease for a new office in the Loop and said it is hiring 100 people this year.

“There’s so much opportunity in Chicago to start your company, to join a startup or to join an established company,” he said.

Regardless of how many advertising campaigns or tech-forward initiatives Chicago tech leaders launch, the city and its tech ecosystem still have issues that could deter would-be migrants. While there’s evidence that the local tech sector is growing, it still lags behind other tech and startup meccas, like

This is one of the ads appearing as part of the campaign funded by P33 and World Business Chicago.

Silicon Valley, New York and Boston.

On a 2020 global ranking of startup hubs by Startup Genome, Chicago comes in No. 14, behind Silicon Valley (No. 1), New York (No. 2), Boston (No. 5), Los Angeles (No. 6), Seattle (No. 9) and Washington, D.C. (No. 11).

Additionally, Chicago also can’t shake its reputation for violence.

Kinga said he was initially worried about crime when he moved to the city in June.

“When I was figuring out what neighborhood I wanted to live in, one of the top things on my mind was: What’s the crime rate here?”

Kinga said.

EASING ANXIETIES

During a recent trip P33 took to San Francisco to recruit tech talent, Chicago representatives were asked about how pervasive violence is in the city. But leaders try to ease anxieties by pointing out

that nearly every big city in the U.S. is dealing with crime.

“In general, all cities are facing an issue right now of increased crime,” Pritzker said. “People are aware of that as a city challenge, but they’re seeing it in San Francisco and New York and other major cities. It’s really not about us particularly.”

Besides a smaller tech industry and crime concerns, Chicago’s cold, long winters and complicated politics hold it back, too.

Even still, P33 said it is making progress with its efforts to bring more tech workers to Chicago.

Success to them looks like recruiting and retaining 10,000 diverse tech professionals over the next two years, especially those with Chicago roots.

“This is our ‘Project Sea Turtle,’ ” Fassnacht said. “Sea turtles, ultimately, always come home.

And that’s what we’re trying to do with this campaign.”

U of C’s ambition: For Chicago to become ‘the capital of the world for quantum’ QUANTUM from Page 3 Pritzker, a U of C alum and trustee who led the Pritzker Foundation to bankroll the School of Molecular Engineering with $100 million. “It’s critical to America’s competitiveness. If we can put Chicago at center court, we can change our economic profile.”

U of C has some of the best infrastructure required for quantum research in the national laboratories it operates: Argonne in Lemont and Fermilab in Batavia. Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source is one of the brightest X-ray machines in the world. It’s also home to several supercomputers and a 52-mile, underground fiber network in the western suburbs that’s perfect for testing quantum communication over long distances. The Department of Energy chose Argonne and Fermilab as two of five national quantum-computing research centers, backed by $230 million in federal funding.

Mark Saffman, director of the Wisconsin Quantum Institute at the University of Wisconsin, which is a member of the Chicago Quantum Exchange research partnership, marvels at how quickly U of C established itself. “I’m jealous of what’s going on at Chicago,” he says. “(The Chicago Quantum Exchange) has become the focal center for quantum tech in the Midwest and has national reach. Fifteen, 20 years ago, UW-Madison was the leader in the field of quantum information technologies.”

The University of Chicago has in-

P029_CCB_20210906.indd 29

vested half a billion dollars in quantum and has built state-of-the-art facilities on campus, including a clean room for nanofabrication and an array of sophisticated scientific equipment. In one of its labs, researchers assemble lasers and lenses to isolate electrons on a silicon carbide atom, looking for the interaction between light and matter. Nearby, others are using a cryostat to cool a magnetic ion to more than 450 degrees below zero to observe the atom without any heat interference.

“Illinois was not the hub of electronics or bioengineering: It went to the coasts,” says professor D ­ avid Awschalom, who also leads the Chicago Quantum Exchange, an academic and corporate research consortium at U of C. “But there’s no reason Chicago can’t be the hub for quantum engineering and quantum technology.”

QUANTUM SUPREMACY

U of C is hardly alone in seeking quantum leadership, and there’s no guarantee any of the contenders will succeed in developing commercially viable technology.

“Everyone wants to be the Silicon Valley of quantum,” says Th ­ addeus Ladd, a senior scientist at HRL Laboratories, a joint research venture between Boeing and General Motors. “It’s not a shoe-in for anyone. The number of technical and scientific hurdles is huge. Right now, there’s a lot of money, a lot of hype and a lot of people who want to skip the hard part. Those people

are going to be disappointed.”

Brookhaven National Lab and the Stony Brook University in New York have quantum research centers, as do Lawrence Berkeley and Oak Ridge national labs. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, home to one of the nation’s top engineering programs, has a federally funded quantum research center. So does the University of Colorado at Boulder.

U of I has deep expertise in physics and materials science related to traditional computing, and University of Colorado is a national leader in atomic, molecular and optical physics. Southern California is a major quantum hub for Google, Microsoft and other companies.

“Chicago is interlinked with three important things: Fermi and Argonne and their battery hub,” says former U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate physicist at Stanford University.

Ladd says that’s one reason California-based HRL, the former research arm of Hughes Aircraft, picked U of C for a quantum partnership. Other factors include its research expertise in silicon carbide and the collaboration opportunities at the Chicago Quantum Exchange.

Quantum computing is geeky even by U of C’s standards. It involves applying quantum mechanics, particularly the mind-bending concepts of entanglement, in which two particles can be linked without being physically connect-

ed, and superposition, in which particles can be in multiple states at once.

While traditional computing stores data as bits that are 0s or 1s— off or on—quantum computer bits, or qubits, can take on any value between 0 and 1. Instead of being an either-or proposition, quantum bits can handle lots of variables simultaneously. That makes them uniquely suited to modeling disease, weather patterns, chemical reactions or trading scenarios, which is why pharmaceutical and industrial companies, governments and financial firms are dabbling in quantum computing.

FOCUS ON CONTROL

Building computers at the atomic scale is appealing, but atoms are fragile. Scientists are just beginning to figure out which ones they can control. It’s the focus of much of the research at U of C. Awschalom says the Chicago Quantum Exchange has attracted nearly two dozen corporate partners, including Boeing, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Toshiba, Verizon, Discover and JPMorgan Chase. De Pablo says he hopes to “attract one or two major companies to move their quantum efforts to Chicago to become an anchor.”

The university also aims to spawn new companies. It recently launched Duality, a $20 million accelerator for quantum startups from around the world. The first class includes Super.tech, a software company founded by U of C

professor Fred Chong and recent Ph.D. graduate Pranav Gokhale.

“It’s the technology that’s going to replace the world we live in,” de Pablo says. “It hasn’t been developed, so we have a chance to be at the forefront, of winning that competition, taking it away from the East and West coasts.”

The university wants to add faculty because “there are still areas we don’t cover. We need to hire more,” de Pablo says. He also points to a growing patent portfolio. “We are starting to patent new kinds of devices. That attracts companies.”

The quantum effort grew out of a molecular engineering program started in 2011 by then-President Robert Zimmer, whose 15-year tenure ended Sept. 1. “The boundary between science and engineering was becoming increasingly porous,” he says. “We were always a place that had fantastic and important science. If we wanted to be great for the next stage of development of science, should we not consider how engineering fits into that portfolio?”

He found a willing partner in Pritzker, who agreed to fund it after Zimmer mentioned it at a cocktail party. The timing couldn’t have been better. Within a few years, the U.S. government set aside $1.2 billion for a national quantum initiative.

“Countries around the world now have national quantum programs,” Awschalom says. “It wasn’t so obvious in 2013.”

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30 September 6, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Backers of plan for Tiger Woods-designed course have new hope it could happen GOLF from Page 3 They argue the Obama Center’s long-delayed groundbreaking ends political uncertainty and shows the area is ripe for investment. But the same preservationist groups that stymied the Obama Center for years could turn their attention to the proposed course.

Backers say their proposed mashup of the Jackson Park and South Shore courses would bring championship golf and accompanying media attention to the city, increasing the economic boost that Obama envisioned for the South Side around his presidential center. Opponents say such a transformation would eliminate an affordable neighborhood golf course and threaten old-growth trees and adjoining preservation areas in the park.

Representatives from the city and the Chicago Park District declined to comment, and Woods’ firm didn’t return requests for comment. Having just navigated political and legal battles to start construction on the Obama Center—a court challenge still lingers, though judges have batted down recent efforts to stop the groundbreaking—few are anxious to wade in just yet, say sources close to the project and City Hall.

Renovation plans were first announced in 2016. Then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Park District CEO Mike Kelly tasked the nonprofit Chicago Parks Golf Alliance with raising more than $30 million to pay for it. The group is led by NBC golf analyst Mark Rolfing, and board members include Illinois PGA Director Carrie Williams; John Kaczkowski of the Western Golf Association, sponsors of the BMW Championship and the Evans Scholars Foundation; and Mike Keiser, founder of the acclaimed Bandon Dunes course in Oregon.

PLANS

In 2017, Woods unveiled his blueprint for transforming the nine-hole South Shore and 18hole Jackson Park courses into a combined par 70 championship course spanning close to 7,400 yards. It boasted stunning views of the city’s skyline and lake, with a short course for families.

With wide fairways and a challenging lakefront breeze, it had the potential to be “the greatest urban golf course in America,” according to Golf Magazine.

But by the end of 2019, the golf alliance had raised only $1.2 million, tax filings show.

While Woods himself has said the former president approached him about the project,

Obama (a golfer and honorary member of the Beverly Country Club), through his foundation, declined to comment. But a spokesperson says foundation leaders hope the Obama Center will spark investment “across the South Side” and bring “amenities of all kinds to the area,” including golf.

Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, says: “The community is ready to see the work begin. I’ve been talking with the golfers all along.

They’re excited to get started.

We’re just waiting to get all our ducks in a row.” Hairston expects the park district and Mayor Lori Lightfoot to resume public engagement on the proposal.

Renewed community meetings could “bring everybody back into the fold,” she says.

Backers point out some of the most significant and expensive improvements needed for the course—two underpasses on Jeffrey Avenue and South Shore Drive at 67th Street—are also already included in planned upgrades around the Obama Center.

Trends in golf are promising, too. After years of declining play and course closures, golf saw an upturn as people sought outdoor activities during the pandemic. Rounds played so far this year are 19% above the 2017-19 average, according to market re-

search group Golf Datatech. Fee revenues at Chicago Park District courses rose 20% between 2018 and the end of 2020.

But the same group that delayed the Obama Center for so many years—Protect Our Parks—could focus on the links next. Noting that the course redesign was not included in the local and federal approvals process for the Obama Center, the group says, “Any material redesign to the golf course would require federal review.”

Another local group, Jackson Park Watch, also remains opposed.

The project “would require cutting down an awful lot of trees,” says Brenda Nelms, co-president of Jackson Park Watch. “I think there would be suits, depending on how it was structured. Even though it has Tiger Woods’ name on it, I don’t think there would be as much public acquiescence as there was for the Obama Center.”

Despite park district promises, Nelms doubts costs—currently $21 for weekend play at South Shore and $35 at Jackson Park—would stay affordable for locals.

Torrey Pines in San Diego is one of the top municipal courses that hosts PGA tournaments.

San Diego County residents pay

anywhere from $32 to $78 to play, depending on the course, player’s age, and time and day of the week. Fees for nonresidents range from $76 to $252.

‘BILLIARD-TABLE FLAT’

Industry consultant Bill Daniels, the founder of Golf Chicago Magazine, says the Jackson Park location isn’t suited to championship play. “The land is billiard-table flat,” he says. Daniels would rather see the park district spruce up the existing course: bolstering the shoreline, improving irrigation to cut down on flooding and parching of the fairways, and fixing muddy bunkers.

While not impossible, making a tour-caliber course playable for weekend hackers is doubly difficult, says Ed Stevenson, the former executive director of the Forest Preserve District of ­DuPage. He undertook a $16 million renovation of the former Oak Meadows golf course in Addison to fix issues like those facing Jackson Park and South Shore. “It’s a design challenge to be multiple things to multiple groups of people,” he says.

Being good enough to attract PGA tournaments while keeping the course friendly for duffers “seem like potentially conflicting goals.”

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 6, 2021 31

As August closed, the elite $4 million-and-up segment of the Chicago housing market hit a mark it doesn’t normally reach until December

BY DENNIS RODKIN A red-hot real estate market that has been hitting new highs all year just hit another one: At the end of August, the number of homes sold in the elite $4 million-and-up price range is already where it normally wouldn’t be until December.

This matters even for people who can’t afford a $4 million home. It’s a strong sign that high-net-worth people continue to invest in the region’s housing market, another indicator of the Chicago area’s resilient appeal even in the face of a massive pension gap, high property taxes and rampant crime.

On Aug. 30, an extensively rehabbed historical mansion on Division Street in the Gold Coast sold for $4 million. It’s the 51st home in Chicago and the suburbs to sell for $4 million or more so far in 2021.

In four of the six years that Crain’s has been keeping a tally of $4 million-plus sales, the 50th property has sold in December. One year the 50th sale was in mid-November, and in one year it was October. That was 2018, which turned out to be a record year, with 73 homes sold at $4 million or more.

Right now, October is weeks away. If the market keeps up its current pace, 2021’s sales total will surpass 2018 by at least 4 sales.

Leading the growth is sales of downtown properties: So far this year, there have been 19 sales at $4 million or more

in the area between North Avenue and Randolph Street, compared with 11 in all of 2020. Thanks to that year’s widespread pandemic-related shutdowns and spasms of social unrest, the upper-end market showed a pronounced shift toward suburban buying.

“There was a lot of pent-up demand then,” said Susan Miner, an agent with Premier Relocation who has represented buyer or seller in several of the big transactions, most recently the buyers who paid nearly $5.73 million for a condominium at the No. 9 Walton tower.

“Now,” Miner said, “you’re seeing sailboats on the lake, people sitting outside at restaurants, concerts and sports again.

People want to be part of that again.”

NEW BUILDING

Some of the high-priced downtown sales are condos in the just-opened St. Regis whose buyers put them under contract as far back as 2017, prior to the pandemic. But the majority of the downtown sales, both condos and houses, went under contract in 2021.

The rush of big-dollar purchases doesn’t necessarily mean that sellers are walking away with big proceeds.

The seller of the Division Street mansion, Bob Loquercio, told Crain’s in 2019 that he had invested at least $5.5 million in purchasing and rehabbing the early-1900s home. That’s $1.5 million more than a buyer paid him for the house last week.

In Lake Forest, a nearly 12,000-squarefoot mansion on Green Bay Road sold Aug. 24 for $4.8 million, or about 88% of the nearly $5.5 million that the sellers paid for it in 2011.

Price aside, agents for these big houses say their time has come.

Tim Salm, the Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty agent who represented the 7,500-square-foot Division Street mansion, told Crain’s in a text message that “many properties that were thought to be ‘too large’ previously are now exactly what people want with changed lifestyle habits. There is an emphasis on having more room for families to spread out.”

Lori Baker, the Compass agent who represented the Green Bay Road estate, a mansion on 3.4 acres, said, also in a text message, that there’s a “different mentality than years ago when we saw buyers not wanting the larger homes (located) far from the city. Now, with continued COVID realities, buyers desire a home with all the creature comforts.”

In setting new records, the upper end of the market is behaving like the more achievably priced segments of the market. Crain’s reported in the spring that homes had sold at record prices in each of 14 western suburbs, and last month that downtown condo sales at all prices have surpassed 2019, the last normal year.

Miner said there’s another way that the upper end is behaving like the rest of the market: These affluent buyers are taking advantage of super-low mortgage interest rates.

“These are people who don’t need a

JAMESON SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY

High-end market sets a record

This home on Division Street in the Gold Coast on Aug. 30 became this year’s 51st home purchased for $4 million or more. mortgage to buy a home,” Miner said.

“They can pay cash. But mortgage borrowing is so cheap that they borrow to buy the home and put their cash somewhere else where they can get a higher return.”

Miner said that while in ordinary times fewer than 1 in 5 of her clients take out a mortgage, “this year, it’s been half of them.”

Little Kenilworth gets big wave of home sales

BY DENNIS RODKIN At 263 acres, Kenilworth could fit into Chicago’s Grant Park with about 50 acres to spare. Its small scale, and in particular its small school, played an outsize role in the affluent North Shore town’s appeal to homebuyers in the 2021 boom, according to locals.

From January through July, 46 homes sold in Kenilworth, up from 19 in the same period in 2020, according to data released in mid-August by Midwest Real Estate Data, the Chicago Association of Realtors and ShowingTime.

The raw numbers are small, but then, so is Kenilworth. An increase of 27 home sales amounts to an influx in a town of 2,500 people. The median home sale price in Kenilworth this year is $1.2 million.

On a percentage basis, home sales in Kenilworth were up 142% from the same time in 2020, according to the data. Percentages are distorted by Kenilworth’s small numbers, but for comparison’s sake, in the other seven affluent north lakefront suburbs, from Evanston to Lake Bluff, sales were up between 21% and 65% in the first seven months of the year.

The spurt of sales in Kenilworth is thanks

in part to “sellers catching up” to where the market stands and cutting their asking prices after holding firm, possibly for too long, said @properties agent Jena Radnay.

Also, the inventory of homes for sale on the North Shore could barely keep up with demand, which might have turned buyers toward Kenilworth who wouldn’t otherwise look there.

SCHOOL’S IN SESSION

The consensus among agents is that the town’s school, which stayed open more than most during the crisis, pulled extra weight this year. Joseph Sears School, which serves all 450 of Kenilworth’s kindergartners through eighth graders, closed like all schools in spring 2020, but for the 2020-21 school year, “We were open all day every day for every student who could come in,” said Superintendent Kate Donegan.

Schools in Winnetka, next door, had a half-day schedule in fall 2020 and went full day this past spring, according to Kate Hughes, spokesperson for Winnetka’s District 36 schools.

Donegan said keeping Sears fully open demanded “a lot of juggling, a lot of keeping people in bubbles, a lot of assigning

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what door you went in and out” but was feasible because of the small numbers involved.

One result: The school district looked really good to parents frustrated with school shutdowns elsewhere.

“We’ve always had Joseph Sears to brag about,” said Mary Grant, also an @properties agent and a Kenilworth resident of three decades. This year, Grant said, “you didn’t have to say anything. They already knew the school was open when others weren’t.”

John Mawicke, an @properties agent who’s the second generation of his family selling homes in Kenilworth, echoed the sentiment. “When people saw that Joseph Sears was so open,” he said, “that was an important piece of the puzzle about moving.”

Kenilworth is so small that Joseph Sears doesn’t even offer a school bus. That meant one possible source of spreading COVID was already off the list before the pandemic began.

Efforts by Crain’s and several Kenilworth real estate agents and school district officials did not result in finding any recent homebuyers to talk with for this article.

Along with Sears is another public resource, the town beach, which feels like a

DENNIS RODKIN

Locals say the public school, which has always been a draw, pulled extra weight in this year’s housing boom because it was fully open for more of the school year than its neighbors

Joseph Sears School in Kenilworth is so small that it doesn’t even offer a school bus. miniresort with its terraced seating areas and space to store kayaks and stand-up paddleboards.

“You can walk or bike to anything in town (in Kenilworth)—the Metra, the school, the beach,” said Radnay of @properties. “In the age of COVID, it feels easier to live that way.”

Vol. 44, No. 36 – Crain’s Chicago Business (ISSN 0149-6956) is published weekly, except for the last week in December, at 150 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601-3806. $3.50 a copy, $169 a year. Outside the United States, add $50 a year for surface mail. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, Ill. Postmaster: Send address changes to Crain’s Chicago Business, PO Box 433282, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9688. Four weeks’ notice required for change of address. © Entire contents copyright 2021 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

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