More than ve years ago, the City Council approved a pair of multibillion-dollar proposals to transform two sprawling Chicago industrial sites into new neighborhoods with thousands of square feet of housing, o ce and entertainment space.
It’s also been three years since council members signed o on a plan to build an almost 8 million-square-foot campus that would include housing and health care on a 50-acre former hospital site on the Near South Side.
In the time since, the COVID-19 pandemic decimated demand for workspace and interest rate hikes made major real estate development projects an even heavier lift, forcing developers to pivot to new ideas for what to build or who to build it with.
Three multibillion-dollar projects — Lincoln Yards, The 78 and the Bronzeville Lakefront — came in a wave of major proposals before the COVID-19 pandemic started. Since then, other sites to watch have emerged as well.
I
By Rachel Herzog
While those three megadevelopments — Lincoln Yards, e 78 and the Bronzeville Lakefront — came in a wave of major projects that were proposed before the pandemic started, other sites and proposals to watch have emerged since then.
River West, where Bally’s plans its $1.7 billion casino and entertainment center, has become a hot spot for developers proposing thousands of new apartment units. e $20 billion One Central project would create a giant o ce and residential center over the Metra tracks near Soldier Field, though it has yet to get a closer look from state o cials. And South Works, a massive industrial site on the South Side, could get new life if it’s chosen as the site of a quantum computing facility.
Chicago has a history of ambitious megadevelopments that have, in some cases, taken decades to come together, such as Lakeshore East, a master-planned development east of Columbus Drive
Abortion bans drive demand for residency programs
The trend could be good news for states with fewer restrictions, which will have the top pick of the country’s best medical residents
By Katherine Davis
When Dr. Mugdha Mokashi was selecting where to complete her residency in obstetrics and gynecology, she was keenly aware of how varying state-bystate abortion laws might a ect her ability to learn and practice. Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision protecting access to abortion, hadn’t yet been overturned
when Mokashi was applying and interviewing for residency programs in 2021, but she says the growing possibility — and eventual reality — was among the top reasons she prioritized programs in states where the procedure was likely to remain legal.
“It really mattered to me that I was in a place that I felt like no matter what, I would get the training I wanted to get,” says
Mokashi, 27, who is now nishing her second year of OB-GYN residency at Northwestern University. “In every interview, I asked, ‘What is the abortion training like for your trainees? And how do you anticipate it’s going to change if Roe falls?’ ” ousands of medical students every year are increasingly
See ABORTION onPage16
Lincoln Yards
Bronzeville Lakefront
The 78
Dr. Mugdha Mokashi MICHELLE KAFFKO, ORGANIC HEADSHOTS
Developer securing $1B refinancing for portfolio
The new financing package would replace about $930 million in prior debt and allow Canadian developer Onni Group to pocket some equity
By Rachel Herzog
A Canadian developer is securing a $1 billion refinancing of a portfolio of apartment buildings that includes five Chicago towers.
Vancouver, British Columbiabased Onni Group is expected to close this month on a loan secured by eight properties in Chicago and the Los Angeles area. The debt will be issued by Wells Fargo, Citi Real Estate Funding and Goldman Sachs, according to a Fitch Ratings report. The loan will be packaged with other debt and sold off to commercial mortgage-backed securities investors.
DAN
Pulling off a major refinancing is notable in a high interest rate environment — so is being able to do it while pocketing some equity. The new financing package, which consists of an $875 million mortgage loan and $125 million in mezzanine debt, replaces about $930 million in prior debt and allows Onni Group to take home $38.6 million.
The $875 million debt is a fixed-rate loan with a five-year term.
The five Chicago buildings included in the refinancing are:
Old Town Park III, a 456-unit tower at North Wells and West Hill streets
Old Town Park I, a 405-unit
ON THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS
tower at 1140 N. Wells St.
369 Grand, a 356-unit tower at 369 W. Grand Ave.
Onni Fulton Market, a 373-unit tower at 354 N. Union Ave.
The Hudson, a 240-unit tower at 750 N. Hudson Ave.
The other properties are apartment buildings in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., that have a total of 961 units. The eight-property portfolio was appraised at about $1.5 billion in April.
Onni Group didn’t respond to a request for comment. The firm has several large projects underway in Chicago, including two complexes dubbed Halsted Landing and Halsted Pointe, that would bring more than 5,000 residential units to the area near the planned Bally’s casino in River West.
CoStar News was the first to report on the refinancing.
NASCAR weekend a reprieve for state of Chicago sports
Atypical 30-minute, southto-north commute took well over an hour owing to street closures and reroutes earlier this month, but I stoically took one for the team. NASCAR weekend was good for Chicago. We don’t have the facilities to host the mega-events — Super Bowl, Final Four, college football playoffs — and we surely don’t have the teams to bring the World Series, NBA Finals or Lord Stanley’s NHL hockey tournament here. So we welcome NASCAR. It brought tourists and their dollars. Television coverage portrayed the city as inviting and postcard pretty. For at least a few days Chicago was known for something other than an intractable crime problem.
And best of all, the roar of the engines, the tight-turns jockeying and the overall spectacle were welcome diversions from the bleak and barren landscape Chicago sports form in this Year of Our Lord 2024.
I know, the Bears opened training camp, and Bears fans — that would be everyone you know from your dentist to your neighbor to your Aunt Gladys — are breathlessly anticipating Caleb Williams delivering them from the mediocrity they’ve known for most of their lifetimes.
Wet blanket alert: Let’s tap the brakes on the savior talk. Patrick Mahomes, we know, is the avatar of modern-day NFL quarterbacking, and he spent a year behind the unremarkable Alex Smith before being entrusted to run the Kansas City offense. Rare is the rookie who can step right in and
duplicate the wondrous feats he performed in college. . . .Anybody remember Mitchell Trubisky? Justin Fields?
The Bears were playing credible defense by the end of last season, and a big-play receiver, a more diverse running game and an upgraded offensive line should give Williams a better shot at winning than Fields had.
But a young and talented Packers squad should only get better in Year 2 of Jordan Love as quarterback, and Detroit’s Lions — I know, I couldn’t believe it either — were a top-five team last season. So the Bears are no sure thing to get out of their division.
That said, they’re the closest thing we have to a playoff contender.
The Bulls, you say? Their solution to ending the multiyear malaise that has gripped them was to draft a 19-year-old string bean, then trade their top scorer and best defender for a 21-yearold point guard who plays like his hair is on fire and a bunch of second-round picks.
The NBA is a men’s league, gents. And you thought GarPax was synonymous with meandering mediocrity.
The Blackhawks? Another promising draft and the addition of some ice-tested journeymen portend a step up from last season’s 52-point calamity. But if you watched the PanthersRangers and Oilers-Stars go at it in the playoffs, you realize the Hawks are maybe a light-year removed from genuine Cup contention.
Local baseball? Yikes.
Nothing is more detrimental to winning than a bad bullpen, unless it’s a lineup in which every member but one — rookie Michael Busch — is performing below his expected norm. That’s your 2024 Cubs — they’ve blown 18 saves and are pounding out 4.2
runs per game, good for 10th in the 15-team National League, as of the All-Star break.
More pop from the quiet bats of, say, Dansby Swanson and Cody Bellinger would help, but a team pretty much is what it is after 90-plus games, and the Cubs aren’t good.
As for the White Sox, the less said the better, which is one reason neophyte broadcaster John Schriffen could use a course correction.
Not to pile on a guy who has been getting a rough ride in his first year, but if Schriffen were any more rah-rah, he’d be wearing a
uniform. And his over-the-top exuberance toward a team that’s more than 40 games under .500 seems disingenuous at times, as well as occasionally misleading.
Also this month, in the midst of another ode to Tommy Pham’s “professionalism,” partner Steve Stone’s silence spoke volumes. He knew better.
The White Sox are Tommy Pham’s eighth team in nine big league seasons. Twice he has been traded in the first year of a free-agent contract. In 2020, he was stabbed outside a San Diego strip club; in 2022, he was fined and suspended for an on-field
skirmish with rival outfielder Joc Pedersen over a fantasy football dispute.
Gambling, Pham explained to a Bay Area reporter, is in his blood. “I’m a big dog in Vegas, a high roller at many casinos.”
Tommy Pham is professional in the sense that Milton Bradley was professional, or Albert Belle. Yet Schriffen talks him up as if he were Derek Jeter.
Dial it down, kid. You’ll stick around longer.
Crain’s contributor Dan McGrath is president of Leo High School in Chicago and a former Chicago Tribune sports editor.
MCGRATH
Dan McGrath
Old Town Park III COSTAR GROUP
Car buffs snapping up new garage condos in Barrington
With 37 units at MotorCave Suites due to start construction in the fall, 25 have already landed buyer commitments I By Dennis
At MotorCave Suites, a development of 37 condos in Barrington built expressly for storing, working on and showing off high-end cars, 25 units landed buyer commitments in the first 10 days of a quiet sales effort, said Joe Taylor, the project’s developer. The official launch of sales by Kinzie Real Estate Group was June 17.
That’s commitments from 14 individual buyers, as several buyers want multiple units, Taylor said. These are people willing to spend from $410,000 to about $1.1 million just for a garage. The largest units can house 16 cars, Taylor said, or more if the owner
See GARAGE onPage18
Rodkin
“We’re catering to a very specific clientele, the car enthusiast who’s got a collection or wants to.”
Joe Taylor, MotorCave’s developer
Blue Cross Illinois parent watches revenue soar
Net income was down slightly thanks to a larger tax bill, but executives are still bullish on the health insurer’s performance
By Katherine Davis
The owner of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois, the state’s largest insurer, saw premium revenue rise 11% last year as the company added new customers and hiked rates amid everincreasing health care costs.
Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp. reported premium revenue topping $54 billion in 2023 — the highest ever, according to the company’s annual financial report obtained by Crain’s through a Freedom of Information Act request to the state of Illinois.
HCSC’s net income was down less than 2% to $1.4 billion due to a larger federal tax burden last year. Before taxes, however, the company posted a $1.7 billion surplus, or profit, 15% higher than in 2022, a fact executives point to as proof the company is “stable.”
“We’re very proud of the growth that we’ve had over the course of 2023,” HCSC Chief Financial Officer James Walsh said in an interview with Crain’s. “Growth is a key strategic pillar.”
A strong financial outlook is important for HCSC this year as it gears up to complete a $3.3 billion acquisition of Cigna Group’s Medicare assets. The deal, expected to close early next year, would be HCSC’s largest in its history, and is intended to enhance its capabilities and reach in the growing Medicare Advantage segment.
Across all plan types, HCSC covers nearly 23 million individuals. Aside from Illinois, HCSC owns and operates Blues plans in Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. HCSC classifies itself as a “mutual legal reserve company,” which means it is customer-owned and operates like a nonprofit.
A strong financial outlook is important for HCSC this year as it gears up to complete a $3.3 billion acquisition of Cigna Group’s Medicare assets.
Like other health insurance companies, HCSC’s benefit expenses rose last year by 12% to more than $48 billion. As the COVID-19 pandemic waned, Americans started returning to the health care system for routine and elective care, bumping up utilization — and the need for payments from insurers like HCSC. Combined with the fact that hospitals and other health care providers are still recovering from the worst of the pandemic, which brought labor shortages and inflation, providers are
Rivian still faces cooling sales despite cash infusion
Volkswagen will infuse $1 billion into the EV maker as it develops new models. But analysts point out a growing cash burn for the company.
By Laurence Iliff, Automotive News
Rivian will continue to burn through billions of dollars in cash and face a challenging electric vehicle market despite Volkswagen’s investment in the EV startup and their plans for a joint venture, industry analysts said.
Under an agreement announced June 25, Volkswagen will make an initial $1 billion investment in Rivian, with up to $4 billion in planned additional investments, including for a joint venture focused on electrical architecture and software,
the companies said.
While the announcement boosted Rivian’s stock price June 26, analysts warned that the California startup faces cash burn from its current operations and expansion plans. Rivian posted a net loss of $1.45 billion in the first quarter and expects mostly flat production this year at 57,000 vehicles.
Morgan Stanley said it expects Rivian’s operations to consume $8 billion of cash from the second quarter of this year through the end of 2027, prior to any impact from the announced joint venture with VW.
The longer-term challenge for
Rivian is learning to build vehicles profitably at scale, the investment bank said in a June 26 research note.
Rivian plans to build a new compact crossover, named the R2, at its plant in Normal, Ill., starting in 2026. It currently builds the midsize R1T pickup, midsize R1S crossover and delivery vans for Amazon.
“The EV business is sure looking like a race to the bottom in terms of excess capacity into slowing demand and a Chinese EV machine just getting started in
Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen Group, and RJ Scaringe, founder and CEO of Rivian, announced the companies’ joint venture plans in June. | BlOOMBERG
A rendering of the largest unit at MotorCave Suites, which is big enough
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Downtown office vacancy reaches new heights again
Companies have collectively cut back on nearly 1.9 million square feet of workspace in the Central Business District over the past 12 months, devastating property values | By
Google took a major step during the second quarter to help relieve the plight of downtown office building owners. But the latest market data keeps telling landlords’ tale of woe.
The downtown office vacancy rate wrapped up the first half of the year at an all-time high of 25.8%, up from 25.1% at the end of the first quarter, according to research from real estate services firm CBRE. The share of available office space in the Central Business District is now inching closer to doubling the 13.8% vacancy rate when the COVID-19 pandemic began and has hit new record highs in 13 of the past 15 quarters.
It’s the same excruciating landscape in which landlords have been trying to survive since the public health crisis supercharged the remote work movement. Companies adjusting to new work patterns have collectively cut back on nearly 1.9 million square feet of office space downtown over the past 12 months, throwing supply and demand for workspace in the central business district out of whack and devastating office property values.
The losses have combined with higher interest rates to set off a historic wave of foreclosures and other distress: Owners of office buildings at 70 W. Madison St. and 332 S. Michigan Ave. were hit with foreclosure lawsuits over the past three months.
The data also underscores the problem facing city officials as they try to restore regular foot traffic into Chicago’s urban core, the lack of which has boosted retail vacancy and threatens the long-term vitality of downtown and its environs.
‘Right-sizing’ continues
The “right-sizing” trend of companies shrinking their office footprints is expected to continue in the coming quarters, said CBRE First Vice President Jason Houze, who represents downtown landlords in negotiating leases.
But the pain has been far more severe for some owners than others. Companies coveting workspace that encourages employees to show up have flocked to top-tier, or Class A, buildings, where the vacancy rate slightly decreased during the past three months to 18%, according to CBRE. That is just slightly higher than the 16.1% Class A vacancy rate a year ago.
In Class B buildings, meanwhile, the share of available space has jumped over that same yearlong span to 29% today from 22.3% midway through 2023, CBRE data shows.
“The flight to higher-quality and higher-experience (build-
Downtown office buildings lost nearly 1.4 million square feet of tenants during the first half of the year, pushing vacancy to a record high for the 13th time in the past 15 quarters.
Danny Ecker
Shield Association, which left behind about 222,000 square feet at 225 N. Michigan Ave. when it recently moved into 95,000 square feet at Aon Center, according to CBRE. In the West Loop, tech company LinkedIn contracted its footprint at 525 W. Monroe St. by nearly 90,000 square feet, the brokerage’s data shows.
The continued trend of spaceshedding outweighing expansions stands to keep pushing the vacancy rate higher, though a slowdown of new supply over the next couple of years could help curb the availability. CBRE’s data shows the 400,000-square-foot office building under construction at 919 W. Fulton St. in the Fulton Market District is the only new project underway, and roughly a third of it has been preleased. That’s a far less intimidating supply of incoming competition than landlords have been facing in recent years.
Thompson Center magnet
Perhaps the best news landlords can hold onto is the impending arrival of Google to the center of the Loop. The search giant formally kicked off construction during the second quarter on its transformation of the James R. Thompson Center into its new Midwest headquarters, a project that could become a magnet for bringing other companies back to the vacancyplagued heart of downtown.
Demand in square feet, by quarter
Demand is measured by net absorption, which is the change in the amount of leased and occupied space compared with the prior period.
Source: CBRE
ings) still remains strong,” said Houze, adding that just 10% of available office space downtown is in buildings completed in the past 10 years.
Building quality is one factor splitting the market between haves and have-nots, but so is landlords’ debt situation. In addition to a large number of properties that have been seized by banks or surrendered to them, many buildings are worth less than the debt tied to them. Some of those aren’t in position to
compete for deals or invest heavily in their properties because their lending partners fear it would be putting good money after bad.
“Some landlords are choosing the wait-and-see approach and some are choosing to be first movers,” said Houze. “There’s a lot of optimism in the latter group.”
Still, the tenancy losses downtown keep the hits coming for all building owners and are driving up the leasing concessions and flexibility they need to offer to
win new deals, Houze said.
Net absorption, which measures the change in the amount of leased and occupied space compared with the prior period, fell by nearly 472,000 square feet during the second quarter, according to CBRE. That marked the second-worst quarter in nearly three years and the fourth consecutive quarter in which demand fell.
Moving the needle downward on demand over the past few months was the Blue Cross Blue
Real estate software company Lessen showed that potential impact recently when it signed on for a new 77,000-square-foot office at 203 N. LaSalle St., across the street from the Thompson Center.
But that deal and other leases recently signed were also reminders of the attrition that’s pushing vacancy higher. Lessen’s new space is far smaller than the 114,000 square feet the company is leaving behind at Prudential Plaza. Other downsizes recently completed or nearly done included Chicago Title Insurance, which is poised to leave 106,000 square feet at 10 S. LaSalle St. for a 65,000-square-foot sublease at 35 W. Wacker Drive, and Service Employees International Union Local 1, which is moving to just more than 20,000 square feet at Aon Center from roughly 28,000 square feet it occupies today at 111 E. Wacker Drive.
On the positive side of the leasing ledger, quantitative trading firm Aquatic Trading inked a lease for 30,000 square feet at 225 W. Randolph St., more than double the space it occupies today at 1 N. Wacker Drive. The Chicago inspector general’s office last quarter also signed a nearly 50,000-square-foot lease at 231 S. LaSalle St., where it will move this year from city-owned space in River North.
Workspace galore
One month from now, Chicago will host one of the most watched political conventions in our country's history. All eyes will be on our great city and state. Fortunately, at the United Center, we are no stranger to being on the world stage.
For over 30 years, our family-owned arena has showcased Chicago at its best:
Investing
$1.2BILLION
of private resources to create a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment hub
Sparking new restaurants, shops and residential developments on the
NEAR WEST SIDE
Playing host to more than 200 diverse events annually, uniting every corner of the world and more than
70 MILLION VISITORS
ECONOMIC ENGINE
Serving as an for the city, supporting thousands of employees and their families
But most importantly, being a partner with our community of neighbors to support opportunity and inclusion for all of Chicago.
Our hometown pride runs deep, and we are proud to be a part of showcasing it for all the world to see.
Thank you for your confidence. While we cannot do it alone, we will do our best to help both Chicago and Illinois shine on this world stage.
- The Reinsdorf and Wirtz families
Look inside a Gold Coast penthouse that hit the market last week at $10.8 million
The sellers, former Fortune Brands Chairman and CEO Bruce Carbonari and his wife, Kate, developed the 5,400-square-foot condo on the 23rd floor from raw space eight years ago I By
Dennis Rodkin
Apenthouse condo on Elm Street with an elegant interior and terraces facing all four directions is went up for sale July 15 at $10.8 million.
The sellers, retired Fortune Brands Chairman and CEO Bruce Carbonari and his wife, Kate, told Crain's they are selling because their primary home is now in Florida and their secondary is now near Detroit, where they have grandchildren.
“We're not using it, not coming to Chicago as much as we did before grandkids,” Kate Carbonari said.
The condo is about 5,400 square feet with another roughly 1,700 feet of outdoor space on the 23rd floor, the top floor, at 4 E. Elm St. It's represented by Sharon O'Hara and Carrie McCormick of @properties Christie's International Real Estate.
The Carbonaris' asking price is $1.5 million above the highest figure anyone has paid for a Chicago-area home so far in 2024, the $9.3 million buyers paid for a Goethe Street condo. The last time a Chicago condo went for more was early 2023, when Citadel chief Ken Griffin sold a Park Tower unit for $11.2 million.
The glassy contemporary building at Elm and State streets, designed by Chicago architecture firm SCB, was not yet complete when the Carbonaris paid almost $6.7 million for the full floor of raw space in June 2016.
A prime advantage of buying it unfinished, Kate Carbonari told Crain's, is that they were able to reconfigure a key pair of spaces, the living room and the south-facing terrace it opens onto. They moved the wall about 5 feet to enlarge what would otherwise have been a “skinny balcony,” she said, and made the wall, 12 feet high, nearly all glass including the French doors.
The result is a terrace that functions as an outdoor partner to the indoor living room. It's deep enough for a pair of fullsize couches and spans the full south exposure of the building, affording panoramic views of the skyline to the south, as well as Lake Michigan to the east and the city's neighborhoods spreading west.
“We were going to be here mostly in the summertime, so the outdoor space was very important,” Kate Carbonari said. The entire space is below a roof and unseen from the sidewalk. The terraces on the northwest and northeast corners are not roofed.
Paul Konstant, a longtime architect of high-level homes pri-
marily in the suburbs, and his daughter, Natalie Konstant, an interior designer, worked with the Carbonaris to design the unit.
The layout includes a combination dining room and bar on the best corner, looking southeast with views of the lake and the Gold Coast's architecture, an expansive informal area including kitchen, casual dining and television room along the east side, with views of Lake Michigan, and four bedrooms running along the west side, with sunset views.
The dining room and bar combo has black walls and a geometrically patterned ceiling inspired by a hotel in London's Mayfair district. There are other nods to vintage architectural details, including the wood paneling in the fourth bedroom, which Bruce Carbonari uses as an office, and some kitchen cabinetry with antique-looking wire mesh doors.
“We wanted to have a sophisticated city home,” Kate Carbonari said, “but I also wanted it to be warm and comfortable.”
Bruce Carbonari worked for Deerfield-based Fortune Brands for 21 years, becoming CEO in 2008 and chairman later that year. He retired in 2011. Over the years, the holding company's divisions included tobacco, insurance, sporting goods, hardware and liquor. Tobacco and sports were sold off during his tenure.
Before retiring, Carbonari oversaw the breakup into Beam, with all its bourbon, tequila, scotch and other spirits, and Fortune Brands Home & Security, with locks, faucets, cabinets and other products.
Aon is taking on tricky businesses with deals for companies in Ukraine, hydrogen developers
The
insurance industry giant is ‘looking for creative solutions to unusual problems’ in uncertain fields
By Mark Weinraub
Insurance industry giant Aon’s latest projects are seeking to add a degree of certainty to businesses looking to take on projects in uncertain fields.
The company will act as an insurance broker for companies working in war-torn Ukraine as well as those seeking to combat climate change with new hydrogen technologies.
“While these specific risks are novel, that idea of sort of . . . imagining what could go wrong and putting some provisions in the insurance policy to reflect that, that is something brokers (with) Aon’s expertise do,” said Meyer Shields, an analyst with Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
“Aon has historically been a very forward-thinking insurance brokerage,” said Shields, who has a rating of “underperform” on Aon’s stock. “They are out there looking for creative solutions to unusual problems.”
Shields noted Aon’s previous work in tackling intellectual prop-
erty issues and mitigating cyber risks as examples of this.
For the Ukraine project, Aon and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation have put together a $350 million insurance package to spur business development in the war-torn country.
Acting as a broker
Aon, working with the Ukraine Ministry of Development, will act as a broker for a $50 million fund to build a portfolio of war risk insurance policies to cover damages for companies operating in Ukraine. The $50 million will be distributed by ARX, a Ukrainian subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings.
“This groundbreaking facility will enable the local insurance industry to appropriately price risk and draw much needed new capital into Ukraine, while creating capacity and capability in the country to support reconstruction,” Aon President Eric Anderson said at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin in June.
The Development Finance Corporation will act as the reinsurer of the $50 million for insurance companies. Aon and the Development Finance Corporation also collaborated on an additional $300 million in insur-
ance designed for agriculture and health care in Ukraine, according to a statement released by Aon.
The deal comes following President Joe Biden’s appointment of former Secretary of
Commerce Penny Pritzker as the U.S. special representative for Ukraine’s economic recovery last year.
“As we looked for opportunities to support the Ukrainian economy, we recognized that a robust insurance market was essential to attracting investment in the country,” Pritzker said.
On the environmental front, Aon is working with Zurich Insurance Group to provide comprehensive coverage globally for certain hydrogen projects with capital expenditures of up to $250 million. Under the terms of the deal, announced in early July, Zurich will act as the lead insurer and Aon as the exclusive broker.
“Many developers and their capital providers have found it challenging to de-risk and secure adequate insurance coverage for the various phases of global hydrogen projects,” Joseph Peiser, Aon’s global CEO of commercial risk, said in a statement. “This new solution caters to their unique needs.”
EDITORIAL
Chicago needs transit reform now
Amid the unprecedented, highstakes drama swirling around this year's presidential race — not to mention recent legal rulings that have harmed or helped various local practitioners of political graft — it's easy to forget that government, when it's run well, is meant to serve a humble purpose: providing the day-to-day services that few of us individually could afford to provide for ourselves. Security in the form of police forces and firefighters springs to mind. Public schools. Sanitation. And, as Chicago is fortunate to have in abundance, transportation. It's on the transportation front where Chicago has had a historic advantage compared to other major American cities. Train and bus lines connect far-flung neighborhoods to the Loop as well as airports that can whisk passengers directly to just about any point on the planet. Reliable and affordable public transit has for decades been an arrow in Chicago's economic development quiver. Place your headquarters here, that pitch has gone, and your employees will be able to get to work quickly and efficiently from just about anywhere in the six-county area.
That pitch has weakened since the pandemic, partly because the office location game isn't what it used to be, but also more troubling because our regional transportation system isn't what it used to be, either. Chicago Transit Authority trains are dirtier, the system's platforms often feel less safe, and its buses are less reliable than they were in The Before Times. Metra
PERSONAL VIEW
service, meanwhile, has been pared back, with fewer trains — particularly express trains — running on some key lines, a situation that seems unlikely to change soon with post-pandemic travel patterns altered, perhaps permanently.
Looming over all of this is a fiscal cliff recently reckoned to be in the neighborhood of $730 million — a shortfall expected to hit sometime after 2025, and one that could cripple the CTA, Metra and Pace if the Regional Transportation Authority and lawmakers in Springfield don't find solutions.
Not that solutions haven't been floated.
One in particular: unifying the three sister agencies and handing over much of their authority to a beefed-up version of the RTA. This consolidation could potentially deliver much better coordination and oversight of agencies that far too often act in isolation.
As if on cue, the heads of those agencies are pushing back and protecting their turf.
As Crain's Greg Hinz points out in a July 18 column, those execs, led by CTA President Dorval Carter, have argued in public hear-
ings that what's really needed is a set of new taxes to fill the budget gap.
Unless Springfield lawmakers get serious, it appears consolidation as originally envisioned in legislation pushed by Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Ram Villivalam is dead in the water. But, as Hinz notes, there's a moderate alternative emerging, sketched out by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. Their plan would give the RTA or a successor regional agency new powers to cut fat, move money where it needs to go, cut back-office duplication and improve service.
Whichever proposal ultimately prevails, it's clear to just about everyone but Carter & Co. that the status quo won't cut it. The solution is not raising taxes. It's trimming overhead and putting the entire operation under a fiscal-minded executive who prioritizes customer service over appealing to a potential patronage army.
Villivalam tells Crain's he's still aiming to produce a bill that can pass by next spring, and that he intends to hold firm: No reform, no money. Chicago business, which has a major stake in how this crisis plays out, will be looking to Gov. J.B. Pritzker to back Villivalam up on this, especially since the agencies' leaders and employees are likely to play hardball and threaten all manner of service cuts and stoppages. For too long, the fallback has been to simply throw more money at our transit agencies and hope for better outcomes. Hopefully we've reached the end of the line on that kind of thinking.
How to build a skilled workforce in the city ‘beyond silicon’
America’s next frontier has always been built by hardworking women and men inspired to move our nation forward. The railroads that link Chicago to every corner of our country were laid by those at the forefront of a new era. Those who dreamed of seeing their work among the stars propelled America to the moon. The web browser, born in the state of Illinois, was developed by those who believed that with enough effort and enough know-how, a technological revolution could transform the way the world works, plays, and communicates.
America is investing heavily to bolster the current generation of technologies, ensuring that we have the fabrication plants we need to produce enough chips to propel the generative AI explosion, along with the cars and everyday appliances that need them.
To lead the world into this next frontier, we must ensure American workers have the aptitude and opportunity to break the boundaries of what is possible. It is the design of new, innovative chips in silicon and beyond silicon that will define this new frontier in AI, quantum, and biological computing, and as we increase manufacturing capacity in the U.S., our innovation and workforce capacity must be built along with it.
A large workforce shortage for these technologies is expected in the next de-
cade. Without a concerted effort, we will not have the trained engineers, scientists, and skilled technicians who will design the future of the industry. We need workers in microelectronics, AI, and quantum technologies to innovate, workers whose efforts will protect our national security, and workers who will ensure our future is built on American soil with American ingenuity.
We need more students to choose chip design and the manufacturing of tomorrow. We need deeper collaborations between industry, academia and professional educational institutions to grow the collective workforce capacity. Industry professionals teaching this work and the physical tools needed to practice and learn technologies of today and tomorrow. And we need more students, from every background, excited to take on these challenges. Partnerships across universities, community colleges, and institutions serving the underserved will be critical to bridge the gap in demand.
That is why, as part of Illinois’ North American Semiconductor Network (NAScNT) vision, we have begun to rethink and re-imagine the tools, resources, and support we can give our workers as they build toward the future.
The forthcoming NAScNT Workforce Center of Excellence (COE) has been designed to drive these efforts forward, uti-
lizing Illinois’ world-class research institutions and the students who study there, our two national labs, and our skilled and organized workforce.
NAScNT’s Workforce COE will serve as a hub of innovation and training, including a manufacturing and simulation center to better help students learn the craft. This COE will also include new chip design degree programs at City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago State, and UIUC, and expand existing joint industry-university-national laboratory partnerships that give students training experience with those doing the work. Illinois is home to the Hire 360 training center, which partners deeply with organized labor to prepare underserved communities and residents for jobs in advanced construction and manufacturing sectors, including AI, quantum and chips infrastructure. The inclusive workforce initiatives embedded in the Chicago Quantum Exchange’s EDA Tech Hub is charting the future of quantum workforce development. Our state graduates more computer engineers, electrical engineers, and computer scientists than almost any other state outside of California.
We believe that utilizing the entire American talent pool, promoting and inspiring chip design and innovation careers in academia, and fostering workforce partnerships to pair driven students with industry
innovators is the best way to give American workers the tools they need to do what they do best: drive our nation forward. America must also stay as the destination of choice for the talented and willing from all around the world, especially the talent that is already here in our academic institutions, who must be provided an opportunity to stay and achieve their aspirations.
Harnessing the power and promise of every American requires breaking down current boundaries. It means that regardless of ZIP code or upbringing, you have a chance to learn and lend your talents to these important efforts. We do a disservice to our nation when we fail to unleash the full might of the American people.
We hope that Illinois’ collaborative vision across the Midwest can serve as a model for other states grappling with similar challenges. Building a skilled workforce ensures industry partners have access to more talent, future students more on-the-job opportunities, and academics more insights needed to build better curriculums.
Rashid Bashir is dean of the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Farah Fahim is a senior engineer specializing in mixed signal ASIC design at Fermilab. Juan Salgado is chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago.
The Chicago mindset is one of inspiration and resilience
We’ve all heard the story of The Fire.
In October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire burned our city to the ground. We rose from the ashes stronger and better. While some say this was a defining moment for the city, we disagree. This was not a moment, but the formation of a mindset that persists to this day.
A mindset of innovation. Of creativity. Of resilience. Of vision.
For the past few years, doomsayers both locally and nationally have been lamenting all that is wrong with Chicago. They question our recovery from COVID. They challenge our ability to compete. But they are wrong.
By all measures, Chicago offers more now than we ever did before for visitors and residents. This is not by accident. Ideas and dreams conceived years ago are coming to life now.
This rich tapestry of culture and economics in Chicago today is the manifestation of a legacy of creative geniuses who choose to make Chicago their home. Who chose to build businesses and industries in Chicago. Who chose to create a thriving cultural ecosystem.
Consider Margaret Taylor Burroughs, who in 1940 helped establish the South Side Community Art Center as a space for Black artists to create and commune, and also established the DuSable Museum. To current creative visionaries like Theaster Gates or Nick Cave, just two out of dozens who are driving a new and globally recognized golden era of artistic production in Chicago.
These creative icons charted their own course. A different take on “the Chicago Way.” Unlike other cities, in Chicago, we are able to cultivate creativity in many different and authentic ways. We have big players, with names recognized around the world, and we have new up-and-coming companies and institutions who may not have the brand recognition yet, but they will.
This spirit of innovation and creativity is not restricted to the arts. Montgomery Ward created a new category of retail — mail order — and then decades later, Chicago also transformed society with the invention of the cellphone. And today, we are at the cusp of new breakthroughs with quantum computing. That is creative genius at work.
Our economic prowess reflects the unique assets of our community. Lake Michigan is a majestic body of water, drawing tourists and residents to its shores. But it also draws economic opportunities. Chicagoland’s green economy produced over $18 billion in economic output in 2022, growing nearly 180% between 2016 and 2022. In 2022, Chicagoland’s green economy employed over 65,000 workers, ranking fifth among the top 10 metro areas for employment in this sector. We have just begun to tap the potential of the blue-green economy.
The fact is that people and busi-
nesses are drawn to Chicago. This spring, Chicago secured its 11th consecutive Top Metro in the U.S. for Corporate Relocation and Site Selection. And last fall, we were named the Best Big City in the U.S. by Condé Nast Traveler for the 7th consecutive year . . . more than any other city. Receiving these awards is not luck; they are highly competitive, and Chicago triumphed over all other markets.
We are rich with boundless culture, inspiration and vision. It has manifested itself in every aspect of our community. From our innova-
tors in business to our innovators in the arts. Chicago is where it is at.
With home-grown organizations such as Current, mHub, 1871, and the Hatchery, we are nurturing new innovations. And those outside of Chicago are recognizing the talent we have here as we welcomed the Sundance Institute x Chicago 2024 last month, just to name one example.
We have a wealth of riches, but it is made even richer because in Chicago we know how to forge meaningful partnerships. We work across industries and neighbor-
hoods to make a good idea better. From the West Side to the South Side to the North Side, every part of our city is bursting with creative energy.
Chicago has proven, throughout generations, to be a place of bold progress and great success.
Chicago’s story is one of resilience and vision. We didn’t just rebuild after the Great Chicago Fire, we built the world’s first skyscraper.
We can’t hold ourselves back from success. Chicago is in the midst of a renaissance. Transfor-
mation is not always linear or easy, but we can’t allow ourselves to fall victim to the critics or doubters. We can’t let the noise from the critics distract us from the work at hand. We must push forward harder and stronger than before. We must believe in ourselves and our city. For now is Chicago’s time to shine.
Glenn Eden is chair of Choose Chicago’s board of directors. Charles Smith is vice chairman of World Business Chicago and executive committee chairman of the Business Leadership Council.
LARGEST BANKS CRAIN’S
Ranked by assets. All figures are as of Dec. 31, 2023. Dollar figures are in millions.
The Driehaus Museum is pleased to announce that Greg Cameron has joined its Board of Directors. Cameron leads the Joffrey Ballet as President and CEO. Prior to the Joffrey, Greg spent three decades supporting artists and creating meaningful experiences at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and WTTW/WFMT. Greg also volunteers for the Facing History and Ourselves Chicago Advisory Board and the State Street SSA Commission.
BANKING
First Bank Chicago, Northbrook
First Bank Chicago, one of the five largest privately held banks in Chicago, is pleased to welcome Yan Song as Vice President Controller. In this role, Yan will oversee financial reporting and accounting operations. He is also responsible for managing the investment portfolio. Yan brings in 10+ years of financial expertise and comes to us from International Bank of Chicago where he held the position of Vice President Controller since 2021.
CONSTRUCTION
Skender, Chicago
Skender, one of the nation’s top building contractors, congratulates Jen Haub on her promotion to Controller. Since joining the Skender team in 2022, Jen has made an indelible impact on Skender’s accounting operations. With more than two decades of accounting experience under her belt, she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role.
CONSTRUCTION
Skender, Chicago
Skender, one of the nation’s top building contractors, congratulates Al McReynolds on his promotion to Senior Superintendent, Team Leader. Al has been an integral member of the Skender team since 2015, showing exceptional dedication to his projects and teammates and providing them with guidance and support at every turn.
CONSTRUCTION
Skender, Chicago
Skender, one of the nation’s top building contractors, congratulates Tony Scott on his promotion to Senior Project Manager, Team Leader. Tony joined the Skender team in 2015, and has been a cornerstone of strength, efficiency and enthusiasm. His remarkable organizational skills and ability to tackle challenges head-on have positively impacted his team’s performance.
CREATIVE
The Motion Agency, Chicago
Terry Mertens has been promoted to the first Executive Creative Director role at The Motion Agency, a fullservice creative marketing agency based in Chicago. Mertens joined Motion in August 2022 and has been instrumental in evolving workflow, optimizing team efficiency, supporting business development, and promoting superior work. He is an exceptional collaborator, creative strategist, team leader, and exceedingly approachable mentor. He has an MS in Advertising from the University of Illinois.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Mesirow, Chicago
Kevin Crouch joins Mesirow Wealth Management as a Wealth Advisor. Kevin provides comprehensive wealth planning and constructs investment strategies that are tailored to fit the needs of high net worth individuals and families. Kevin earned his Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University. He also studied at the London School of Economics.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Wintrust Financial Corporation, Rosemont
Wintrust Financial Corp., a financial services holding company based in Rosemont, Illinois, with more than 170 locations across Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Florida is pleased to announce two promotions. Paul Weaver was promoted to SVP, Lending, Wintrust Private Client at Wintrust Bank, N.A. Paul joined Wintrust in 2019. Jeff Eversden was promoted to SVP, Head of Credit Administration at Wintrust Financial Corporation. Jeff joined Wintrust in 2011.
INTERIOR DESIGN
Tom Stringer Design Partners, Chicago
Tom Stringer Design Partners announces the promotion of Kruti Zaveri to Partner. As a Partner, Zaveri will continue to build upon the firm’s legacy and lead the next phase with the Studio’s high-end clientele. As the first female partner, she will bring her expertise in management and logistics to ensure each department runs seamlessly. Zaveri is an active member of the American Society of Interior Designers, Illinois Chapter.
LAW
Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, PLC, Chicago
Austin Root has joined Miller Canfield’s Public Finance Group. He serves as bond and disclosure counsel to Illinois public entities, including school districts, cities, villages, counties, park districts, and special districts, and acts as underwriter’s counsel for municipal bond underwriters. He provides counsel to both public and private entities on municipal and state governmental matters, including tax increment financing, special service areas, contract procurement and cannabis licensing.
LEGAL
Honigman, Chicago
Honigman LLP welcomes Patrick Johnson and Saloni Sahara to its Real Estate Department as partners in the firm’s Real Estate Services Practice Group and Real Estate Transactions Practice Group, respectively. Johnson focuses his practice on construction transactions and litigation matters, including construction contract drafting and negotiation, project delivery methods, and claim resolution.
Sahara advises U.S. and international owners, operators, investment managers and developers on a broad range of complex commercial real estate transactions. Sahara
NON-PROFIT
Nourishing Hope, Chicago
Carolyn Kriss is now chief operating officer for Nourishing Hope, formerly known as Lakeview Pantry. Kriss brings 20 years of experience in the public and private sectors, most recently as vice president of strategy for Tovala, a food tech startup. She’s also held leadership roles at DoorDash, Capsule and Starbucks. Earlier, Kriss served in the administration of former President Barack Obama. A Yale University graduate, Kriss earned her MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Wipfli, Chicago
Wipfli has promoted Ryan Rademann to partner. A trusted C-suite advisor for dozens of large contractors nationwide, his deep technology expertise is deployed to support clients’ operations, finance, accounting and business development. Ryan and his team have a strong track record of execution helping builders define and deliver on digital transformation objectives. He joined the firm in 2014 and in 2021 was named the regional leader of the construction and real estate practice.
REAL ESTATE
Cullinan Properties, Peoria
Cullinan Properties, a leading national provider of real estate services specializing in commercial and mixeduse developments and acquisitions, announced the appointment of David Schreiber as its Chief Investment Officer. David has over 20 years of experience in the real estate investment sector. Most recently, he was the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of AneVista Group, a real estate private equity firm.
LAW
Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, PLC, Chicago
James Snyder has joined Miller Canfield’s Public Finance Group. He provides counsel to public entities across Illinois, acting as bond and disclosure counsel to school districts, cities, villages, counties, park districts and special districts, and underwriter’s counsel. His experience includes municipal finance transactions, such as general obligation, revenue, special service area, tax increment, industrial development revenue, multifamily housing and Section 501(c)(3) revenue bonds.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Sikich, Chicago
Sikich, a leading global technology-enabled professional services company, has promoted Cameron Petroff to Chief Marketing Officer and Kelli Schweder to Chief of Staff. These newly created roles follow the company’s recent $250M minority investment from Bain Capital to accelerate growth and enhance operational excellence, as Sikich grows in size and gains market share.
Petroff, with 20+ years in global services marketing, previously led marketing at Sikich for seven years. Schweder has nearly 20 years of experience and most recently led Corporate Strategic Projects for the company. Schweder
ML Realty Partners, Itasca Jon Mikrut joined ML Realty Partners as Asset Manager. He will focus on Chicagoland and Dallas-Fort Worth portfolio management for ML Realty Partners. Mr. Mikrut comes from Lightstone Group and AIC Ventures and holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees from Northwestern University.
Eversden
Companies are ditching golf for pickleball to get deals done
A growing number are finding the new sport saves them time and money
By Jo Constantz, Bloomberg
Look out golf: Pickleball is coming for your corporate schmoozers.
While golf courses have long been hailed as the premier venue for closing deals and wooing clients, a growing number are finding that pickleball saves them time and money — while being more inclusive and easier to play for newcomers. Corporate bookings at pickleball clubs across the U.S. spiked in June from the previous month, according to PodPlay, a sports venue booking platform.
Individual pickleball club operators back this up, saying that company events are increasing exponentially. Ace Pickleball Club, with locations in various states, has had a steady flow of corporate gatherings, co-founder Joe Sexton said, with event requests at new locations piling up even before they open. Greg Raelson, chief marketing officer of Pickleballerz club in Chantilly, Virginia, said corporate bookings have roughly tripled since 2021. New York’s Life Time health club is fielding 10 to 20 corporate booking inquiries per week — more than five times last year’s volume.
The court is becoming especially popular among lawyers,
bankers and realtors looking to expand their professional circles. In Rochester Hills, Michigan, pickleball instructor Robert Dunn said he sees lawyers with clients, business types talking shop and auto industry executives bringing suppliers and purchasers to play. “Even if the intent isn’t business, business is often a topic of conversation,” Dunn said.
Chicago-based real estate broker Colin Hebson said he’s observed a similar trend and has become a convert himself after using the golf course to entertain for 25 years. A key part of the appeal is that pickleball is much less intimidating than golf for those who haven’t played before.
“If you’ve never golfed before and I invite you on the golf course because I want to network with you and do business, it’s almost impossible to be able to keep up,” he said. “I can take someone onto the pickleball court who has never touched a pickleball paddle before, and I can show them how to play and they would have a good time in under 10 minutes.”
It’s also much more efficient: Hebson can finish a couple of games of pickleball in under two hours, versus taking half the day to golf. To top it off, two
hours at Hebson’s pickleball club cost $80, versus $600 to $700 to entertain on the golf course.
Mathew Norman, senior director of events at a South Carolina pickleball club called Crush Yard, said companies are seeing a greater return on investment with pickleball. “Everyone involved spends more time with each other under one roof and the event time is a max of three hours instead of five,” he said. This allows executives to schedule events starting around 4 p.m., so staff can still work most of the day. So far this year, Crush Yard said it has already put on 10 events for companies that normally do golf.
More diversity, engagement
Golf, of course, isn’t going anywhere. The sport experienced a surge in popularity during the pandemic, and the National Golf Foundation said recently that oncourse golfers have increased for six straight years and golf is gaining popularity with women and people of color. Even with these inroads, 74% of golfers are still men and 78% are white, according to the foundation. This has prompted some die-hard golfers to shift to pickleball in order to tap into a broader and more diverse pool of clients, according to
Richard Green, co-founder of pickleball club SPF Chicago.
After noticing that some of their colleagues seemed less than jazzed about an afternoon on the green, executives at one Chicago-based marketing company decided to host a pickleball tournament this year.
“They saw pickleball as a way of reaching out to get more engagement out of employees who don't like to golf,” Green said.
Minneapolis-based life coach Jasna Burza began inviting clients to play pickleball when she realized it would help them to loosen up. Burza, who works with executives, lawyers and
entrepreneurs, said it’s a welcome alternative to the golf course for many of the women she coaches. “A lot of my women clients are like, ‘I have kids, I don't have time to spend seven hours on the course,’” she said. It’s also been transformative for her relationships with clients who do golf, many of whom she used to walk the green with. “There are no pretensions. You see them miss a point. There’s so much vulnerability on the court,” she said. “What I love is that you see adult men and women engaging in trash talk. People are competitive, but it’s not as serious as golf.”
Chicago’s first padel courts are coming to the West Loop
A new racket sport club is setting up shop just outside the Fulton Market District — and, no, it’s not pickleball
By Rachel Herzog
A new racket sport club is coming to the West Loop — and, no, it’s not pickleball.
A group led by multisport facility operator Lakeshore Sport & Fitness and Chicago venturecapital investor Fabian Gosselin plans to open the city’s first padel club in early 2025. The facility will be located just outside the Fulton Market District.
The sport, which has elements of tennis, squash and pickleball, is popular internationally, and Gosselin and Lakeshore Sport & Fitness CEO Peter Goldman said they’ve started seeing it take off in the U.S.
“It’s growing really fast everywhere else in the world. It’s starting to come to the states, and we wanted to be a part of this exciting growth,” Goldman said.
The club is set to be the first facility of its kind within Chicago; the nearest padel courts are located in suburban Mundelein, about an hour’s drive from the Loop.
“When I came here four years ago for business school, I wanted to play padel and couldn’t be-
cause there weren’t any courts in the city at that time, and it just started kind of like this passion project for me where if you can’t find it then maybe you have to build it,” said Gosselin, who is originally from Mexico City. “And
then I started seeing clubs popping up in New York, in California and in Florida, and I was like, why not Chicago?”
He added that the pickleball craze “did a great favor” to padel by bringing excitement and at-
tention to racket sports. A wave of new pickleball clubs have popped up in the Chicago area in recent months, including Social Pickleball Fun in Lincoln Park and The Picklr in Naperville.
“We strongly believe that there
is going to be a padel-mania in the next few years,” Gosselin said.
While some of the skills carry over between the two sports, a main difference of padel is that players can play off the walls surrounding the court, like in squash.
The club will be located at 219 N. Paulina St., near the Ashland CTA stop and the mHub manufacturing incubator. Goldman said the location near Fulton Market targets the demographic of “young, hip, cool, fun people” that live on the Near West Side.
“It’s a natural extension of that community,” he said.
The facility will include five indoor courts as well as amenities that could include lounges for members, food and beverage options and a co-working space. The club will offer memberships to access exclusive amenities as well as drop-in reservations.
Chip Evans of brokerage Cushman & Wakefield represented the investors in the negotiations for a long-term lease for the 30,000-square-foot space. Calls to phone numbers listed for the building’s owner, Walnut Street Properties, weren’t returned.
Corporate bookings at pickleball clubs across the U.S. spiked in June from the previous month, according to PodPlay, a sports venue booking platform. UNSPlASH
FREEPIK
Researchers may have found the key to curing lupus
Northwestern scientists
By Jon Asplund
Scientists at Northwestern Medicine and Brigham & Women’s Hospital have discovered a molecular defect related to the cause of lupus that could potentially hold the key to reversing the mysterious autoimmune disease.
The discovery, published in the journal Nature, describes a new pathway that drives disease in lupus. Before this study, Northwestern Medicine said in a press release, the causes of the disease that affects more than 1.5 million Americans were unclear.
“Up until this point, all therapy for lupus is a blunt instrument. It’s broad immunosuppression,” co-corresponding author Dr. Jaehyuk Choi, associate professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine dermatologist, said in the release. “By identifying a cause for this disease, we have found a potential cure that will not have the side effects of current therapies.”
What scientists found is a a molecular defect involved in a fundamental imbalance in the immune responses in systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly known as
say they found a defect related to the cause of the disease that could help reverse it
lupus, the release said.
“And we’ve defined specific mediators that can correct this imbalance to dampen the pathologic autoimmune response,” said cocorresponding author Dr. Deepak Rao, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a rheumatologist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and co-director
of its Center for Cellular Profiling. Lupus can result in life-threatening damage to multiple organs including the kidneys, brain and heart. Existing treatments often fail to control the disease, the study authors said, and have unintended side effects of reducing the immune system’s ability to fight infections.
The study explains there are disease-associated changes in multiple molecules in the blood of patients with lupus.
Scientists then sought to show that the discovery could lead to possible treatment.
Investigators returned the AHR-activating molecules to blood samples from lupus patients, which seemed to reprogram these lupus-causing cells into what’s called a Th22 cell that may promote wound healing from the damage caused by this autoimmune disease, the release said.
“We found that if we either activate the AHR pathway with small molecule activators or limit the pathologically excessive interferon in the blood, we can reduce the number of these disease-causing cells,” said Choi, also the Jack W. Graffin professor at Feinberg. “If these effects are durable, this may be a potential cure.”
The title of the article is “Interferon subverts an AHR-JUN axis to promote CXCL13+ T cells in lupus.”
“Ultimately, these changes lead to insufficient activation of a pathway controlled by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), which regulates cells’ response to environmental pollutants, bacteria or metabolites,” the press release said. “Insufficient activation of AHR results in too many disease-promoting immune cells, called the T peripheral helper cells, that promote the production of disease-causing autoantibodies.”
Husband-and-wife architects are selling their inventive house in Ukrainian Village
linda Searl and Joe Valerio, who rarely work together professionally, collaborated on the bold home they designed for themselves in two phases. They’re asking a little under $1.5 million for it. I
By Dennis Rodkin
Amarried pair of Chicago architects who don’t usually work together are selling their best-known collaboration, the bold Ukrainian Village house they built for themselves in phases and became a visual landmark of the neighborhood.
The house on Ohio Street, its first floor wrapped in brick with glass "ears" rising above it in 1989, and the upper two floors clad in metal and finished a decade later, is the work of Linda Searl and Joe Valerio.
They put it on the market this month, priced at just below $1.5 million and represented by Joanne Nemerovski of Compass.
Built on a lot they chose largely, Valerio said, because it was what they could afford back then, long before Ukrainian Village was in the zone of hipness, the house started out as a drawing on a restaurant napkin in the late 1980s as the newlyweds shared ideas for their future home.
The first phase was essentially a brick box because "we had to do it cheaply," Valerio told Crain's. Searl was not available to join the interview. "To the best of our knowledge, this was the first new construction in the neighborhood in decades," Valerio said.
It's more than strictly a box, though, with details such as the extruded bricks that poke out from the walls and the architects' modern take on dormers, or glass boxes on the corners that poke up like ears.
Inside, those dormers provide ample natural light and taller glimpses of the outdoors than a conventional one-story house.
From the beginning, the couple planned to add a second story. They wound up adding a second and third, in a rounded portion that they call "the drum."
The interior is mostly crisp white walls with birch accents, like the pair of wall cabinets in the dining room. Flanking a doorway, they're the architects' contemporary, geometrical take on built-in china cabinets.
Second-floor rooms, including
the primary bedroom, have curved walls the same as the exterior. On the third floor is an office that accentuates the curve even more with built-in bookcases that bend in the opposite direction.
The primary bedroom also has architect-designed built-ins and tall windows that pick up on the look of the earlier phase's ears.
In 2000, after the second phase was done, a Chicago Tribune reporter wrote the house "stands in stark contrast to the bungalows, two-flats and industrial loft buildings that surround it." Two decades later, dozens of new homes and rehabs have come online in Ukrainian Village, but few have topped the flair of the two architects' house.
In that time, the house has changed as well. Three years ago, the couple gutted their original low-budget kitchen and designed a new one with ash upper cabinets, high-gloss white lower cabinets and higher-end appliances than they could afford back in the 1980s.
Searl is a principal of Searl Lamaster Howe Architects, with a deep portfolio of luxurious residential designs, including one made from a former bowling alley.
Valerio is a principal of Valerio Dewalt Train Associates, responsible for the stately modern Gordon Parks Arts Hall at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, the contemporary Godfrey Hotel in River North and others.
The two have collaborated "about a dozen times" over the years, Valerio said, most notably at a dorm at the University of California, San Diego. Valerio's firm designed the nine-story Rita Atkinson Residences there and Searl's did the interiors.
Both in their 70s, the two architects also have a house in Venice, Fla., that they designed. They are selling the house, Valerio said, to make Florida their primary home, but will keep a home here, a rented apartment in a building Valerio's firm designed at 1401 S. State St.
listing, contact Suzanne Janik at (313) 446-0455 or email sjanik@crain.com .www.chicagobusiness.com/classi eds
hoping to pursue gynecology and obstetrics and other specialties in states where abortion is still legal following the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022. Because many doctors look to start their careers where they finish training, it could increase the pool of medical talent here.
Illinois is now among just 15 states with protective abortion policies, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based research and policy group advocating for the expansion of abortion and other reproductive rights. The other 35 states have implemented abortion restrictions or outright bans since the Dobbs decision. And now medical students’ preference is shifting toward residencies in states with fewer abortion restrictions, according to an analysis by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
States with abortion restrictions and bans saw sharper year-overyear drops in the number of applications from graduating U.S. medical students compared to states where the procedure remains legal, the data shows.
Applications are down across the board because of new restrictions on how many residency programs a student can apply to have reduced the total number of applications across specialties. But the numbers are down further in states where abortion is restricted or banned. In the 2023-2024 application cycle, applications across specialties were down 4.2% in those states. That’s compared to a decrease of just 1.9% in states that have gestational limits and a decrease of 0.6% in states where abortion is legal.
For OB-GYN specialty applications specifically, states with abortion bans saw the largest drop of 6.7%. Meanwhile, states without restrictions saw a small increase of 0.4% in applications.
OB-GYN applications in Illinois dropped by 8.8%. Meanwhile, states with outright abortion bans, like Missouri and Alabama, saw drops of as much as 25% and 21%, respectively.
The data reflects anxieties among medical students about whether they’ll be allowed to learn and practice medicine in the manner they believe it should be practiced, says Dr. Atul Grover, executive director at the AAMC Research & Action Institute.
“The potential for criminalizing what most physicians view as a normal part of health care, I think, is really concerning,” says Grover, one of the lead authors on the AAMC study. “The potential for criminal prosecution is really scary for people for just doing the best that you can for patients.”
For the most part, the medical community is against restrictive abortion policies. Dr. Jack Resneck, president of the Chicago-based American Medical Association, has said the organization is “steadfastly opposed to governmental interference in the practice of medicine, especially for well-established, medically necessary treatments.”
That attitude is part of what’s driving residents to apply for programs in abortion-friendly states. But applications only reflect residents’ preferences, not where they actually end up training.
Health care systems have limited slots available for each specialty. Regardless of how many applications they receive each year, they usually aren’t able to add more spots, which could make popular programs more competitive in the process. For example, Northwestern’s top-ranked OB-GYN program receives more than 1,000 applicants per year for just 12 slots.
While the trend could be good news for states like Illinois, which will have the top pick of the country’s best residents, it could have the opposite effect on abortionrestrictive states.
“You may have programs in states that are having a harder time attracting the right candidates for their programs and their communities,” Grover says.
But the shifting preference for abortion-friendly states foreshadows where residents may choose to live and practice once residency is over.
“This does have long-term implications for the ability of states and communities to attract and retain physicians across specialties (and) across their communities,” Grover says. “And that’s going to be particularly tough for states that may already have difficulty in keeping the number of physicians per capita up.”
Local hospitals adapt
Because residency applications are down across the board, local teaching hospital systems, such as Northwestern and Rush University System for Health, say the overall number of applications at their
respective institutions is down, too, or has remained about the same, even for OB-GYN programs. But they report other changes since Dobbs.
“We are getting far more questions about family planning, training and abortion access from our applicants,” says Dr. Emily Hinchcliff, an assistant professor at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine who leads its obstetrics and gynecology residency program.
And once OB-GYN residents finish the program, Hinchcliff says most of them go on to practice in abortion-friendly states, especially in the last couple of years.
A similar story is unfolding at Rush, which has just six OB-GYN residency spots, says Dr. Sloane York, an assistant professor and director of Rush’s OB-GYN residency program.
“(Abortion access) is a huge thing that OB-GYNs find very, very important,” York says. “They want to make sure that they get this training and they’re looking at programs that specifically articulate that they have access to this training.”
York says since the Dobbs decision, more OB-GYN residents at out-of-state programs are coming to Rush on rotations to receive adequate abortion training, as the procedure is required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
Other Illinois health care systems are certainly experiencing the same, the AAMC’s Grover says. But that presents a whole host of logistical challenges, like transportation, housing and ensuring faculty physicians are available to teach newcomers.
“It’s complicated and expensive,” Grover says.
While convoluted, the training received in Illinois could help support gynecologic and reproductive care across the country — even in states where abortion is banned.
When Mokashi, a native of Huntsville, Ala., is done with her residency at Northwestern, she hopes to return to the South to pursue a maternal fetal fellowship. Many Southern states have banned abortion, but that’s part of why Mokashi says it’s so important she trains in a state like Illinois.
“When you’re providing abortion care in a place that has like less logistical and political support for abortion, you have less help,” she says. “And I wanted to be as surgically trained as possible to manage my own complications.”
DEVELOPMENTS
From Page 1
downtown that includes the St. Regis tower, and Central Station, a transportation terminal turned residential development.
Here’s a look at where Chicago’s biggest megaprojects stand now.
Lincoln Yards
In 2019, Sterling Bay’s plan to create a 14.5 million-square-foot work, entertainment and living destination along the Chicago River was pitched as a project that would knit together three North Side neighborhoods and shore up the city’s tax base. Now, Lincoln Yards needs a financial boost of its own as two main backers of the project are looking to walk away.
The Chicago developer paid more than $100 million for the former A. Finkl & Sons Steel property in 2016, a purchase that coincided with a move by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel to update development guidelines for more than two dozen industrial corridors in the city. The initial proposal for the $6 billion megadevelopment between Lincoln Park, Bucktown and Wicker Park was unveiled two years later.
Sterling Bay has completed a years-long environmental remediation of the site and built one building, a 320,000-square-foot life sciences hub at 1229 W. Concord Place, as well as a portion of a planned milelong riverwalk. The developer has yet to announce a tenant for the building.
Sterling Bay has been vying to begin the major infrastructure work needed to kick-start the other developments it’s proposed on the site, which would include towers as tall as 595 feet and a mix of offices, residential units, retail and other uses. But progress stalled in the last few years as the developer struggled to raise the upfront capital needed to build necessary infrastructure like roads and bridges; the firm’s CEO, Andy Gloor, publicly placed blame on former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration for being slow to approve a proposed bond financing deal, which Lightfoot has disputed.
Sterling Bay’s existing equity partners on the project are seeking an exit, too. Lincoln Yards’ two primary backers, New York-based J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, have sought to sell their stakes in the project at substantial discounts.
“We are in multiple active discussions to recapitalize Lincoln Yards, and expect we will have this accomplished by year’s end. Our goal remains to consolidate ownership of the development across north and south. And based on our ongoing discussions, we’re confident we are going to get there. It’s an incredible site in an even more incredible city,” Sterling Bay Managing Principal Keating Crown said in an emailed statement.
Kayne Anderson Real Estate emerged as a potential backer in March, according to recent reports that the Florida investor and Sterling Bay executives had met with top city planning officials to discuss the project.
Another source of financial pressure is a $126 million loan from Bank OZK tied to a large chunk of the northern portion of Lincoln Yards that was slated to mature in 2023. Cook County property records show the terms of the loan were modified in November to change the maturity date, though a new deadline to pay off the mortgage wasn’t disclosed.
While navigating those financial headwinds, the developer sold a nearby industrial site in 2023 and put a trio of properties next to the Lincoln Yards site along the Chicago River up for sale in April.
Infrastructure work would start “almost immediately” after the project is recapitalized, enabling vertical development to begin, Crown said. An updated timeline for vertical construction hasn’t been released, but it’s unlikely that the next structure on the site will be an office building as Sterling Bay looks at the market and the decline in the demand for workspace. The developer is “constantly evaluating market dynamics to appropriately adjust our plans” to meet the market’s demands, Crown said.
“Lincoln Yards is dealing with the same difficulties as every project in commercial real estate right now. High interest rates, lack of liquidity in the market, property taxes that are among the highest in the country, and reduced demand for office product resulting from work-from-home post-pandemic have made even the most attractive developments like those in Fulton Market and Lincoln Yards more difficult to execute,” Crown said. “We all have challenges, but Lincoln Yards is in a class of its own when it comes to the location and viability of the site.”
Bronzeville Lakefront
On the Near South Side, the development team tasked with remaking the massive former Michael Reese Hospital site into a $3.8 billion mixed-use complex focused on health and equity is also shaking up its development timeline to adapt to shifts in the market.
The hospital, known for its technological advances and commitment to treating all patients regardless of race or class, shuttered in 2009 after over a century in operation. The city bought the site with plans to build an Olympic village for the 2016 games, which Chicago was aiming to host. But the city lost its Olympic bid, and the property sat vacant for more than a decade.
The city selected a team of firms, including Farpoint Development, McLaurin Development Partners, Loop Capital Management, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives and Bronzeville Community Development Partnership, to redevelop the site in 2017. City officials signed off on a redevelopment plan and a deal for the team, dubbed GRIT Chicago, to buy the property in phases over 14 years, paying nearly $97 million in total, in 2019.
The team is “moving rapidly” with infrastructure work on the site, which includes building just under 2.5 miles of new street grid, Farpoint founding principal Scott Goodman said. That work is expected to take another year, after which vertical construction can start.
A health innovation hub anchored by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center is planned for the site, though Goodman said the team plans to shift its development timeline to build residential space with ground-floor retail, including senior housing, first as demand for housing outpaces the need for life sciences space.
“We spent many years being engaged by the community. We are working towards being true to our commitments and also being mindful of the marketplace and being sure we’re building things that are in demand and economically feasible,” Goodman said. “So much is dependent on the economy and on construction costs and on interest rates, but we expect to go vertical as quickly as possible.”
While the first phase is underway, the team plans to renovate the one remaining structure on
unveiled plans for a $7 billion project that would include thousands of units of housing as well as commercial space in 2018.
So far, the developer has built a road running north-south through the middle of the site connecting Wells Street to Wentworth Avenue, intended to serve as the development’s main thoroughfare.
“It’s not open yet, which is probably a good thing because we (need some development) around it. When it opens, that will create a new north-south kind of connection point for downtown into Chinatown and other neighborhoods south as well,” Related Midwest President Curt Bailey said.
The first vertical construction on the site will be the University of Illinois’ Discovery Partners Institute headquarters, a $285 million, 200,000-square-foot research and education hub on the southern end of the site that will serve as an anchor for The 78.
the site, the former psychiatric institute known as the Singer Pavilion, and reposition it as a community-oriented facility to make it “a tribute to the past and also something that’s functional going forward,” Goodman said. Goodman also didn’t rule out Bronzeville Lakefront as the potential location of a new sports stadium. He’s advocated for the site as another option for a new Chicago Bears stadium in the city. The football team, which has pledged to put $2 billion toward a new domed stadium that would be part of a proposed overhaul of the Museum Campus, has said there are problems with the Bronzeville site.
While the Bronzeville Lakefront development team isn’t banking on a sports stadium as an anchor, and hasn’t spoken with the Bears directly, it’s something the developers would be eager and able to make happen, Goodman said. He said he’s spoken to other local teams, which he declined to identify, but isn’t in serious discussions with any. As new stadiums have become a hot topic of discussion in recent months, the city’s Chicago Fire FC and Chicago Red Stars soccer franchises have become part of the broader conversation.
“There’s been talk that our site is too small, but we are able to accommodate stadium development,” he said. “We would be enthusiastic.”
The 78
While one megaproject developer is courting sports teams, another has a major league franchise pushing to be a part of its plan.
News broke in January that Related Midwest was in serious talks with the Chicago White Sox about building a new stadium at The 78, a long-fallow lot along the east bank of the Chicago River that the developer is billing as the city’s future 78th neighborhood.
Related Midwest took control of the 62-acre swath of land between Roosevelt Road and Chinatown in 2015, announcing plans to form a joint venture with the property’s owner to develop the site. The firm
Design for the hub is also complete, and DPI is working on a design for building out 15th Street, which will span from the WellsWentworth Connector to Clark Street, an institute spokeswoman said. Related Midwest is finalizing an agreement to move Metra tracks several hundred feet to the west to build out 15th Street as well as to create new park space, Bailey said.
DPI announced a request for proposals from general contractors to build the hub in March. The institute is finalizing its selection and will determine a start date for construction once it’s issued, according to a spokeswoman.
In February, renderings surfaced showing a White Sox ballpark as part of Related Midwest’s vision for a new neighborhood, with the stadium surrounded by apartment towers with a hotel, entertainment options and a parking garage nearby. The original project would have provided up to 10,000 housing units; the pitch now has about half that amount, though 20% would still be set aside at affordable rates, Crain’s previously reported.
Though a pitch for billions of dollars in public subsidies for the project from state lawmakers came up empty during the spring legislative session, Bailey said Related Midwest plans to keep working with public officials to figure out a solution, which he said will require coordinating with other teams such as the Bears and the Red Stars that are angling for stadium subsidies.
“Would we have — best-case scenario — gotten legislation done in Springfield this last session and been able to move forward? Would that have been a good thing for development in Chicago? Absolutely. That being said, things this big and important take time, and we look forward to not only working with the leaders in Springfield, (but) the mayor’s office and with the other sports teams to figure out a way we all move forward together,” Bailey said. “We’re many years now into The 78. We have maintained since day one that we need an anchor to drive the development, to create a lot of energy and a spark. DPI is an incredible first step in that, but we need another.”
The Chicago skyline in 2021 CuRT WAlTZ / AERIAlSCAPES.COM
BLUE CROSS
renegotiating contracts with insurance companies. And they are often seeking higher reimbursements as the cost of delivering care continues to rise. National health expenditures grew by about 7.5% in 2023, faster than gross domestic product growth of 6.1%, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
A particular recent pain point for insurers, including HCSC, is paying for new, high-cost gene therapy medications, as well as GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy, said Laura Minzer, president of the Illinois Life & Health Insurance Council, a commercial health insurance plan industry group.
“The amount of your premium dollar being absorbed into prescription drug spending is increasing more and more,” she said.
Texas expansion
HCSC saw a 70% increase in the utilization of GLP-1 drugs in 2023, Walsh said. Even still, adding new members, particularly in Texas where HCSC is currently expanding its corporate presence, helped boost premium revenues and cover drug and other costs in 2023.
From 2021 through the first quarter of 2024, HCSC says it added 2.5 million members across all five of its states, reflecting a 12% increase. Part of that growth was fueled by the 2022 acquisition of Trustmark Health Benefits, now known as Luminare Health, Walsh said.
While HCSC is adding members, it’s also been grappling with Medicaid redeterminations, the nationwide dismantling of policies from the COVID-19 era that allowed Americans to stay on the government-sponsored plans regardless of income eligibility. As the eligibility process resumed
GARAGE
Premium revenue jumps year over year
Health Care Service Corp. reported premium revenue rose 11% last year as the company added new customers and hiked rates.
last year, Walsh said about 150,000 members lost eligibility. As some were forced to leave Medicaid plans, HCSC’s total Medicaid membership dropped slightly.
offset those being removed.
Other revenue growth tactics included plan rate hikes. The company declined to share specific rate increases, but Walsh
A particular recent pain point for insurers, including HCSC, is paying for new, high-cost gene therapy medications, as well as GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy. installs lifts.
“We’re catering to a very specific clientele, the car enthusiast who’s got a collection or wants to,” Taylor said. “I knew the demand was there, but I didn’t know it was at this level.”
John Victor, who got into this race a few years before Taylor, is not surprised. “The demand is high,” said Victor, whose 35-unit Big Door garage-dominium development in Mundelein sold out earlier this year.
The buyers, Victor said, “are affluent people who need a place for their toys and they’ll pay to get it.” He said prices at Big Door went up by at least 20% in the four-year sales program. Victor also said the few resales so far have been profitable for their sellers, but he declined to provide figures.
Denver-based Victor said one big reason for the high demand is low supply. “You have maybe 20 or 30 of these (developments) in Denver,” he said, but Chicago, with a metro-area population
The risk is losing those members for good. Walsh wouldn’t disclose how many Medicaid plan holders returned to HCSC for other types of plans but confirmed some did come back. In Illinois specifically, Walsh said the number of Medicaid enrollees remained stable as new members
more than three times Denver’s, has three so far, with MotorCave coming in as the fourth.
First in the Chicago area was the Autobahn private racetrack and garages in Joliet, followed by Iron Gate Motor Condos in Naperville and Big Door.
Buying a ready-built garage for storing and waxing a car collection is one way to do it. There’s also the DIY method. In 2016, Stephane Rembaud showed a Crain’s reporter around his private 16-car gallery he spent about $1.8 million developing in Fulton Market.
Similar to townhomes
At MotorCave, the condos are like two-story townhouses, if a townhouse were all garage on the first floor and a mezzanine above that for dining, hosting parties and hanging out, all while looking out over the cars on the garage floor. The buildings, designed by Chicago-based OKW Architects, will have “modern farmhouse” exteriors, Taylor said.
MotorCave is the smaller but more captivating component of a multiuse project by Compasspoint Development, the firm Tay-
where local lawmakers recently passed two bills as part of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Healthcare Protection Act, which takes aim at insurance companies’ “predatory practices.”
Among the legislation is a requirement that insurance premiums be “actuarially sound and reasonable” and a provision that insurance companies receive approval from the Illinois Department of Insurance before raising prices on large group plans. Other pieces of the legislation ban prior authorization for mental health treatment and step therapy policies for prescription drugs.
Walsh declined to comment on how the company is reacting to the new legislation and an HCSC spokeswoman didn’t answer further questions about the issue.
Looking to grow with Cigna
Looking ahead, HCSC intends to grow its business with the Cigna deal, though it will have to contend with nationwide pressures on Medicare Advantage plans. Walsh said adding the assets is estimated to bring in about $12 billion in revenue for HCSC, which would boost total revenue to about $70 billion.
But HCSC’s publicly traded peers, like UnitedHealth Group and Humana, have warned of recent profit challenges in the sector.
Insurers are facing higher medical expenses, federal policies to constrain spending and other looming payment cuts, which suggest the Medicare Advantage market may become less lucrative.
described them as being “small, fractional” increases.
“When we do our pricing, we try to be prudent,” Walsh said. “We have had rate increases, but they’ve really been to try to address the medical trends.”
Rate increases will soon come under scrutiny, at least in Illinois,
lor heads. Compasspoint acquired 9 acres bounded by Hough and Liberty streets and rail lines. On 6 acres, the firm plans a four-story building with first-floor commercial space and 125 apartments above, as Crain’s reported recently. The four-building MotorCave project will be on about 3 acres.
Because sales of the garage condos have been so swift, Taylor said he’s accelerated the construction schedule. Initially planning to start on one building when he reached 50% sales, the typical sales benchmark for condo developers to start building, Taylor says he has enough commitments now to start all four buildings this year, staggered by a month each.
Demolition on the site is underway, Taylor said, and he expects construction to start in October. If so, the first units will be delivered to their owners around April.
The MotorCave units range in size from 1,500 square feet to 3,800, and each has a bathroom. Along with their own unit in the camera-monitored MotorCave complex, owners will have access to a clubhouse with an in-
From Page 3
the export/transplant markets,” Morgan Stanley said. The bank noted, however, that VW’s manufacturing expertise could be helpful to Rivian.
Past plans
Morgan Stanley also cautioned that automotive joint ventures have a checkered past historically. The bank has a buy rating for Rivian shares.
On the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, one user posted the April 24, 2019, press release in which Rivian announced a $500 million investment from Ford Motor Co. and a partnership to develop an EV. The June 26 post on X was skeptical of the Rivian-VW deal, given that the Ford deal fell through.
Ford told Automotive News in November 2021 that it was scrapping its plans for products with Rivian. Ford later sold off most of its Rivian shares, according to regulatory filings.
Walsh acknowledges those challenges but said HCSC is moving forward on the deal because it would make the company a top 10 player in the senior insurance market, a fast-growing demographic as the country’s population ages.
“Although there may be some headwinds in the business today . . . this is a strategic opportunity for us,” Walsh said. “The business opportunity is there on a long-term basis.”
door lounge and an outdoor grilling station, as well as to amenities of Compasspoint’s Mylo apartment complex on the adjoining acreage.
The amenities at Mylo, which Taylor expects to start building in early 2025 and complete two years later, include an outdoor pool, pickleball courts and a fitness center.
Garage condo developments “turn into really fun communities, a fun way to experience your toys,” Victor said. “You find all these like-minded people. There are barbecues in the summer. The Ferrari people go to Italy together to go to the factory.”
The prices are good in Chicago, Victor said. He’s not involved with Taylor’s MotorCave project but has looked at prices. He says they’re about 15% to 30% below the going rate in Denver. Crain’s couldn’t verify the Denver figures independently.
More developers are likely to jump in, Victor said. “You’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” he said. Taylor said the quick absorption at his project means he’ll definitely consider building more garage condos.
The same X user, a Tesla fan account called Whole Mars Blog, also posted 2022 media reports about Rivian’s plans to build electric delivery vans with Mercedes-Benz in Europe. Rivian announced those plans in a Sept. 8, 2022, press release. In a Dec. 12, 2022, statement, Rivian said it was canceling the plans.
Barclays said in a research note June 26 that Rivian faces big losses and EV demand issues despite making progress on costs and building marketleading products. Barclays has a neutral rating for Rivian. Rivian reported a 2023 net loss of $5.4 billion and announced job cuts last year and this year. It shut down production at the Illinois factory in April this year to implement a series of cost-cutting measures, it said. The automaker held an investor day June 27 at the plant, it said.
Helps current, future plans
Bank of America said in a research note June 26 that the VW deal is helpful to Rivian’s plans to build its new R2 compact crossover in Illinois and to expand its vehicle portfolio at a future Georgia factory.
“This news is meaningfully positive for RIVN as the agreement should provide the company with access to capital to not only fund the ramp-up of production of the R2 at its Normal, Ill., facility but also to build a new facility in Georgia,” Bank of America said.
“We reiterate our buy rating on RIVN, which is predicated on our view that the company is one of the most viable among the startup EV automakers with attractive product, solid long-term strategy, and adequate funding well into 2025+,” Bank of America said.
Laurence Illif writes for Crain’s sister publication Automotive News.
UChicago-born early warning device for sepsis gets FDA nod
AgileMD will begin testing its AI-powered device for predicting life-threatening deterioration of patients
By Jon Asplund
With federal clearance in hand, AgileMD, founded at the University of Chicago, will begin testing its artificial intelligencepowered device for predicting life-threatening deterioration of hospital patients.
The company’s eCART Clinical Deterioration Suite can identify hospitalized patients at high risk for conditions like heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and sepsis, the cause of clinical deterioration in about half of all high-risk patients, AgileMD said in a statement.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration 510(k) marketing clearance came after a review of clinical performance data from nearly two million hospitalizations from 21 hospitals, the release said. eCART is an AI-driven software as a medical device using a machine-learning algorithm to continuously assess hospitalized patients’ risk of impending death or intensive care unit transfer, AgileMD said in the statement.
About 10% of hospitalized patients deteriorate during their hospital stay, the release said, and delays in escalation of care are associated with increased mortality and length of stay.
AgileMD co-founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dana Edelson says the current eCART suite, in its fifth iteration since work
began in 2014, takes advantage of massive computing power and machine-learning capabilities developed in the last few years, so the software takes mul
tiple clinical interactions into account. With 97 variables in the model, “it takes all the variables into account,” including the ramifications of variables that are missing in the data.
“And it gives way fewer false alarms, which is what the front line really cares about,” she said. “There’s always a trade-off between sensitivity and positive predictive values, and the better the model, the less painful that trade-off will be.”
The death of a hospitalized patient who developed sepsis was what catalyzed her drive to build the predictive tool.
Development
As a trainee in her second year of residency at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and the most senior doctor on floor at the time, Edelson and the rest of the medical staff were “slammed” with patients, including a man who had severe bleeding and a seemingly healthy 18-year-old who, while hospitalized, was still talking and joking.
Edelson recalled being more worried about the bleeding patient only to return to the 18-year-old to find sepsis had kicked in rapidly and “he was breathing 40 times a minute and
needed to be ventilated.” Before he could be ventilated, she said, he went into cardiac arrest and died.
“There was data that could have predicted it; I just didn’t see it,” she said. “I didn’t know what to look for.”
Unlike with older patients, Edelson explained, sepsis can set in quickly for relatively healthy young patients “and they fall off a cliff.”
That day still sticks with her, she said, and set her on the path to use data to predict and inform clinicians as early as possible that a patient is deteriorating.
On faculty at UChicago, Edelson threw herself into research, saw patients as a hospitalist and also took on the role of executive medical director for Rescue Care — all roles that aligned to help her in developing the predictive software.
Around 2014, before machine learning was incorporated into the mix, UChicago was able to launch the first version of eCART, in clinical use “in the background” of an iPad. It crashed the servers on the first day.
That same day, Edelson said, she was in a meeting where UChicago Booth School of Business graduate student Borna Safabakhsh was pitching a tool that integrated clinical pathways into electronic health records.
Edelson said Safabakhsh’s tool for getting data into electronic health records perfectly complemented her tool for reading clinical data looking for signs of deterioration.
“It was the chocolate to my peanut butter,” she said.
Safabakhsh became CEO and co-founder of AgileMD.
“The University of Chicago helped both of us,” Edelson said, “and made the transition to creating a company easy.”
The company is now technically based in San Francisco, but it’s mostly run remotely since COVID-19, according to Edelson, who still lives in Hyde Park and works at UChicago Medicine.
In addition to backing from UChicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, AgileMD was one of the first companies in the health sciences startup accelerator Matter. The company, which has received nearly $3 million in federal funding, is backed by Matter, the Polsky Center, Y Combinator and Rock Health.
This Mag Mile office building could go residential
A developer is proposing to convert a North Michigan Avenue tower to 320 dwelling units
By Rachel Herzog
A mostly vacant office building on the Magnificent Mile could turn residential, a move that would breathe new life into a corridor plagued by vacancies. Greenwich, Conn.,-based Commonwealth Development Partners is proposing to convert most of 500 N. Michigan Ave. into 320 dwelling units, according to an email that downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, sent to constituents.
Commonwealth is under contract to buy the 24-story building from a venture controlled by a consortium of international investors that put it up for sale in 2022, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. Commonwealth executives didn’t immediately return requests for comment on July 12.
The proposal comes as Michigan Avenue has lost its luster as an office destination and would be an investment in the corridor as it grapples with high retail vacancy
and low foot traffic amid the remote work movement.
It would follow another officeto-residential project on North Michigan Avenue and the conversion of Tribune Tower to luxury condominiums, and also comes about a month after a city panel signed off on subsidies for projects to turn four office buildings in the LaSalle Street corridor into more than 1,000 apartments.
The plan Commonwealth is putting forward for 500 N. Michigan Ave. would convert floors six through 23 in the building to residential units. The first two floors would remain retail and commercial space, and floors three through five would be office space. The proposal also envisions rooftop amenities and a terrace, which would raise the building’s height to 321 feet from 303 feet.
The project requires approval from the Chicago Plan Commission and the full City Council.
When the building went up for
sale, brokerage Colliers International framed the 54-year-old property as a redevelopment opportunity as demand for downtown apartments has outweighed the need for workspace. The office portion of the tower was nearly 70% vacant at that time, while the
two-level retail space was fully leased.
A venture led by New York real estate investor Samuel Schapira paid $86 million for the property in 2017; Schapira was bought out of the ownership group in 2021, Crain’s previously reported.
