Quantum computing isn’t a far-off dream.
It’s now.
The game-changing technology is still more promise than reality, but that hasn’t stopped some rms from rushing to use it
IBy John Pletz
llinois wants to win the quantum computing race, so much so that it’s putting up a half-billion dollars in a bid to make Chicago a world capital of this next-generation technology.
“Quantum has the potential to revolutionize the world as we know it,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at a recent quantum summit in Chicago.
Tech giants and startups alike are racing to build machines large enough to deliver on that promise, including PsiQuantum, which plans to build the world’s largest quantum computer on the former U.S. Steel South Works site on Chicago’s Far South Side.
But companies already are experimenting with quantum computing,
See QUANTUM on Page 17
How Roti went bankrupt
The Mediterranean fast-casual chain grabbed a lifeline in order to make it through the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it’s back ring.
By Jack Grieve
Regulars at the Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant Rōti may have been surprised to learn the Chicago-based chain led for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Aug. 23. e company experienced rapid growth over much of the last two decades, and despite closing some locations during the COVID pandemic, its downtown restaurants still have drawn lunch lines out the doors.
Behind the scenes, though, the business has been in hot water for
years and is now approaching a boiling point. In the Chapter 11 ling, Rōti CEO Justin Seamonds laid out how he thinks the company got to this point and what he sees as the future for the struggling chain.
According to Seamonds’ written declaration, Rōti faced many of the same challenges brought on by the pandemic that rattled the hospitality industry writ large. ey had to reimagine how they packaged food, adapt to online ordering and navigate new safety measures. Rōti ultimately closed 16 of its 42 restaurants between
March 2020 and early 2023. At the same time, Rōti pulled a lifeline to allow its remaining 26 locations to survive the initial pandemic punches: e company negotiated rent deferral agreements with its landlords.
ose deferral agreements are now expiring — and Rōti appears unable to pay up. As Seamonds wrote in the court lings, the expired deferrals are “leading to a signi cant increase in operational expenses which have been
ROTI on Page 16
DAN MCGRATH
The Bears’ stadium dreams rest on the shoulders of new QB Caleb Williams
PAGE 2
AVIATION
The state’s vision for a Peotone airport includes some surprises. PAGE 3
The Chicago-based chain operates 10 Illinois restaurants, including this one at 80 E. Lake St. See
ROB GARCIA
Bears’ stadium dreams rest on Caleb Williams shoulders
We’re counting on you to be not just the face of the franchise, kid, but the future, so go get 'em.
Unspoken though it may have been, that’s the message to Caleb Williams as he begins his rookie season as the Chicago Bears’ quarterback, the latest in a line of “franchise QB” aspirants that stretches back to Sid Luckman.
Dan McGrath
I know, a lot of injuries and a bit of lifestyle derailed Jim McMahon’s swashbuckling run, and pouty Jay Cutler put up some gaudy numbers, and somehow, the unremarkable Rex Grossman got the Bears to a Super Bowl. But “franchise quarterback"? The help-wanted sign is still out.
While John Elway, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees were utilizing liberalized rules to reinvent the game, and while the Packers and the 49ers were savoring Hall of Fame excellence from the QB position for decades, the Bears went forth with . . . the list is too dreary to recount, but Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, Mike Glennon and Moses Moreno
are among those on it.
And let’s not forget (as if we could) that in the draft that could have brought them Patrick Mahomes, the Bears picked Mitchell Trubisky.
Oh, the glory that awaits him if Caleb Williams can erase that gloomy history from Chicago’s collective memory. And not just Kid Caleb, but the entire organization.
When I returned to Chicago in 1996 after 20-plus years as a newspaper nomad, two sportsthemed things stuck out: the absolute scarcity of Bulls tickets and the city’s enduring fascination with the '85 Bears.
The former I could understand; his baseball walkabout behind him, Michael Jordan was at the peak of his powers in '96, and MJ himself has declared those 72-win champions the best of the Bulls’ six title teams.
Whereas the '85 Bears might elsewhere be dismissed as one-hit wonders — they were not only the NFL’s best team that season, they were its youngest — here they are deified, mooned over like a sixth-grade crush to this day. As much as their ferocious play, their outsize personalities and undeniable swagger altered the way Chicago felt about itself.
That didn’t happen in, say, San
Francisco, where Super Bowls (four in the '80s alone) and deep playoff runs were the expected order of business. Led by the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers with six each, 15 of the NFL’s 32 teams have won multiple Super Bowls.
The Bears aren’t on that list, yet you risk a punch in the nose in these parts if you suggest the '85 edition, with six Hall of Famers, was anything less than the best team ever. And the mystique lived on, long after infighting over off-field stuff infected the roster, with injuries, age and mismanagement also complicit.
It took the gross ineptitude of the Emery-Trestman and PaceNagy regimes to finally convince an ever-loyal populace that their heroes were probably more than a backup left tackle away from a return to glory.
Now it’s Ryan Poles who’s in charge of football issues. If nothing else the third-year general manager has restored an aura of competence to the operation, though the ultimate test will be the results he gets from the most important position on the field.
That would be yours, Caleb.
At the same time, hard-charging team President Kevin Warren is
in full-bore pursuit of a new stadium to replace Soldier Field, which, even after a fairly recent, multimillion-dollar face-lift, still lacks the amenities that distinguish the cool-kid franchises in the modern NFL.
The Arlington Park racetrack site beckons, but Warren wants to stay on the lakefront. Good luck with that. Public pressure helped scuttle George Lucas’ plans for a Star Wars museum at a nearby site, and that modest structure was a toolshed compared with the sprawling, multipurpose edifice the Bears are proposing.
Plus there’s taxpayer money involved, and public funds for private enterprise is becoming a tougher sell in modern America.
In Kansas City, the Chiefs seek funding for renovations to Arrowhead Stadium, backed by the leverage of four Super Bowl appearances in the last five years, three of them victories. The response so far: If you want it so badly, do it yourself.
Say, for a minute, that Poles’ roster upgrades work, that Williams is the real deal, that the Bears are back to being title contenders, that it’s 1985 all over again.
If you were a politician, you’d rather board that train than step in front of it.
You’re up, kid.
Another major drug distributor drops AbbVie’s Humira
Cigna’s pharmacy benefit manager business, Express Scripts, will exclude AbbVie’s Humira from its largest commercial formularies.
The wildly successful biologic drug for inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and plaque psoriasis, stood alone in the marketplace for two decades.
Express Scripts noted in a statement last month that Humira became the world’s most prescribed medication “while simultaneously getting more and more expensive, with price hikes totaling nearly 500% in the years following its approval.”
But in 2023, biosimilars — cheaper versions of the antiinflammatory drug, also called adalimumab — became available as patented protections for blockbuster drug Humira ran out.
“After years of delays caused by patent thickets, biosimilars are at last disrupting a class of medications that for too long has been controlled by several brand-name biologics like Humira,” the Express Scripts statement said. “With the availability of a range of biosimilars, we can further drive meaningful competition that will lead to lower costs for patients and plan sponsors, enabling them to afford new innovations in the pipeline.”
North Chicago-based AbbVie did not return a request for comment.
Cigna is the second insurer to turn its back on Humira in
favor of biosimilars.
In April, CVS Caremark became the first major pharmacy benefit manager to announce it was removing Humira from most of its lists of covered drugs for patients on private health plans.
AbbVie saw Humira sales in the second quarter of 2024 of $2.8 billion, matching analysts’ projections but dramatically down from U.S. sales in previous quarters. The company is placing its bets on two other anti-inflammatory drugs, Skyrizi and Rinvoq, sales of which were $4.16 billion combined, beating average Wall Street estimates of $3.95 billion.
Express Scripts is making adalimumab biosimilars from four other manufacturers available to commercial members.
“We’ve been thoughtful in developing a comprehensive approach that considers not just the formulary placement of biosimilars, but also each product’s clinical efficacy, interchangeability, available supply, dose and concentration that will provide a seamless patient experience with these more affordable products,” Adam Kautzner, president of Cigna’s Evernorth Care Management and Express Scripts, said in the statement.
Beginning in 2025, Express Scripts said its commercial members will have access to the following biosimilar products: Boehringer Ingelheim’s Cyltezo (adalimumab-adbm) and its unbranded version Teva Pharmaceuticals’ Simlandi
(adalimumab-ryvk), the first interchangeable biosimilar with Humira Sandoz’s unbranded adalimumab-adaz High- and low-concentration interchangeable biosimilars produced for Quallent Pharmaceuti-
cals through agreements with multiple manufacturers
“As a pharmacy benefit manager, we lead the way in ensuring patients get the highest quality drugs at the lowest possible cost in the most patient-friendly way possi-
ble,” Kautzner said in the statement. “With this latest update, we’re prepared to embrace the savings biosimilars offer and pave the way for access to the next wave of prescription drug blockbusters coming down the pike.”
By Jon Asplund
Caleb Williams
BLOO m BERG
Vision for Peotone airport includes some surprises
After more than 30 years of discussions, the idea just inched forward with a request for developers to tackle the project
By John Pletz
The long-awaited, oft-discussed airport near Peotone would cost up to $300 million, according to a just-issued request for qualified developers who want to tackle the project.
Although the South Suburban Airport has most recently been discussed as primarily a cargo airport, the project details released by the Illinois Department of Transportation include the possibility of a passenger terminal.
the south suburbs,” Harris says. “That’s the beauty of this process: We finally have opportunity to say whether it’s a viable project, is anyone interested? The expectation is that they’ll be receiving a lot of interest.”
The list of multimillion-dollar mansions for sale
is growing
the latest is an $18 million offering in Winnetka, bringing the total to nine new listings in the Chica go area that are priced at $10 million or more in the past 45 days |
Alakefront mansion in Winnetka for sale at $18 million is the ninth Chicago-area home to go up for sale in the rarefied $10 million-and-up market since mid-July.
That’s despite the fact that in the past 12 months, there’s been one sale in their price range, a $15.25 million transaction last month in Lincoln Park.
The nine properties, at prices ranging from just short of $10.7 million to $35 million, represent the extreme upper echelon of the offerings in the six-county metro area. They’re about one one-thousandth of the 7,895 properties that have gone on the market at all prices since July 17.
Before rushing to explain this as a surge of wealthy people
By Dennis Rodkin
Along with the nine new listings at $10 million-and-up, there are at least five others that were already on the market before this summer’s rush.
“IDOT’s objective is that the (South Suburban Airport) will include commercial passenger service, cargo operations, and general aviation activities,” the document says.
Although passenger capability is included in the scope of the project, even the most ardent supporters acknowledge cargo is still the most likely initial use. The idea is that a private developer would build the airport as part of a public-private partnership that might also seek federal funding.
“There’s little reason to tie a developer’s hands by ruling out certain markets,” says Joe Schwieterman, a professor at DePaul University. “In the short term, cargo is what will drive the project.”
Legislators such as state Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Homewood, pushed for legislation requiring IDOT to issue a request for proposals two years ago.
“There’s a lot of excitement in
The idea is that a private developer would build the airport as part of a public-private partnership that might also seek federal funding.
Harris says the long-term hope is for an airport that would include passenger as well as cargo operations. “When you take on a job of this magnitude, you don’t want to leave anything off the table,” he says. “Hopefully, it starts as cargo, and airlines see the benefit.”
Robert Poole, director of transportation policy at the libertarian think tank The Reason Foundation, says it’s a long shot to think passenger service will come to Peotone. “There was not a case for it as a passenger airport,” he says. “If I were on the selection committee, I’d give points to one who says, ‘Let’s not do the
Warehouse sale price shows industrial sector’s strength
High interest rates are not stopping owners from flipping their properties for a profit
By Danny Ecker
The highest interest rates in more than two decades may be keeping many commercial property investors on the sidelines, but they’re not stopping warehouse owners from flipping properties for a profit.
In a deal showcasing the strength of the industrial real estate sector, a venture led by Chicago-based real estate investor Brad Borkowski paid $26.1 million in July for the threebuilding Woodridge Commerce Center at 10204, 10210 and 10216 Werch Drive in the western sub-
urb, according to DuPage County property records.
The price topped the $21.1 million that the seller, Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Unilev Capital and an affiliate of Palladius Capital Management, paid for the properties in October 2021, records show. That was months before the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates to battle inflation.
The 148,012-square-foot complex is 96% leased today to 22 tenants, roughly the same as it was when Unilev and Palladius acquired it. But while higher borrowing costs over the past couple years have weighed down the val-
ue of most commercial property types, demand for high-quality industrial buildings has kept warehouse rents rising and investors
paying premiums to own them. Companies that ramped up their supply chains as more people shopped online during the
COVID-19 pandemic fueled a frenzy for space to store and distribute goods and sent industrial rents soaring. It also set off a warehouse development boom that looked like it might leave the Chicago area with too much supply as broader economic fears grew late last year.
Luckily for owners, interest rate hikes dramatically slowed new construction. And demand for industrial buildings has remained steady enough to keep landlords in a position of power when negotiating with tenants.
“We are very happy with the outcome, both for Unilev and our partner at Palladius,” Unilev Chief Investment Officer Ian
Woodridge Commerce Center | COStAr GrOUp
Homeowners with high net worth may not feel locked into their present homes by a low pre-2022 mortgage rate, which is a key factor that has kept middle-class inventory low. DAVID WArD
One of the nation’s hottest housing markets is just outside of Chicago
Highland, Ind., about 41 miles from the Loop, landed on Realtor.com’s annual list for the second year in a row
By Dennis Rodkin
When her client, a Chicago homeowner, said she wanted to move to northwest Indiana for lower property taxes and a quieter lifestyle without doubling her commute, Jessica Soetan, a Premier Midwest Realty agent, knew where to look.
“Highland has a very hometown feel, but you’re still close to Chicago,” said Soetan, who resides in Illinois but years ago lived in Highland, 41 miles southeast of the Loop in Lake County, Ind. Soetan showed her client around, and “she fell in love with it.”
In June, during a bidding war over a three-bedroom house on Grand Boulevard in Highland, Soetan’s client emerged victorious at full price, $325,000. The property had been on the market a brief 14 days.
Speedy sales and a crowd of interested buyers landed Highland’s ZIP code 46322 at No. 9 on Realtor.com’s 2024 list of the nation’s 10 hottest real estate markets, published Aug. 20.
Realtor.com measures hotness as a mix of short market time and how many more page views a listing gets than the typical figure for listings nationwide, both indicators of strong demand, said Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst for the online real estate marketplace.
Highland, the only town near Chicago that made the top 10, was also on the 2023 list.
The town’s ninth-place spot is down a few from last year, when Realtor.com crowned it the na-
tion’s sixth-hottest ZIP code. That's because the market slowed a bit in Highland — the typical number of days on the market went from 19 last year to 21 in 2024.
At the same time, listings are getting slightly more views. In 2023’s report, Highland listings were getting 2.9 more views, on average, than the typical listing nationwide. This year, they’re getting 3.3 more views.
Jones isn’t surprised at Highland’s repeat performance, or that of the other two repeaters, Gahanna, Ohio, and Ballwin, Mo.
“The real estate market hasn’t
changed much, with interest rates staying high and prices rising,” Jones said. “That’s driven buyers to look for where they can find relatively affordable homes."
Particularly for property tax refugees leaving Illinois but preserving ties to Chicago, Highland is an affordable place to search.
‘More house for your money’
“You get a lot more house for your money than you can in the surrounding area,” says Manny Hernandez, an agent with Simplify Your Move in St. John, Ind. “But you get a nice sense of com-
munity and good schools.”
The median price of homes sold in Highland in the past year was $241,850, according to Redfin, another of the online real estate marketplaces. Compare that to the neighboring towns Hernandez named: Crown Point ($314,900), Munster ($334,900) and St. John ($444,990).
Fast sales are a well-known characteristic of the tight-inventory housing market nationwide, but in Highland, they’re even faster.
A three-bedroom house on Garfield Avenue lasted just two
days on the market in June. It sold Aug. 9 for $300,000, exactly $100 over the asking price.
On Franklin Street, a threebedroom house hit the market in late June at $269,900 and landed a buyer in five days. The sale closed in mid-August at $1,600, or about 0.5%, over the asking price.
A house on Cottage Grove Avenue with three bedrooms went up for sale July 23 and had its buyer lined up three days later. The sale closed Aug. 21 at $310,000, which is about 3% over the sellers’ ask.
On a Tuesday in mid-July, Marco Lopez, an agent with Seramur Properties, put his own home in Highland on the market, priced at $400,000. He was confident the house on Northwood Lane would sell over the weekend, he said, “but it didn’t even make it to the weekend.”
He quickly received at least three offers, put the property under contract that Friday, and closed the deal Aug. 9 at $405,000, about 1% over the asking price.
The heat in the Highland market, Lopez says, “is due to the proximity to Chicago.”
He’s evidence of it. Lopez says he moved to Indiana from the Chicago area about three years ago and picked Highland for the relatively short commute, about 45 minutes to a work location in Hermosa, on the city's Northwest Side.
Now fully ensconced there and with less need to get into Chicago, Lopez says he’s moving farther east within northwest Indiana.
Developer secures $31M loan for Lincoln Park apartments
Citypads scored financing for its planned five-stor y apartment complex near North and Clybourn avenues
By Rachel Herzog
A local development team has secured financing for a 132-unit apartment project near the intersection of North and Clybourn avenues in Lincoln Park.
Chicago-based CityPads and partner Wayland Real Estate Capital, a Glencoe-based investor, obtained a $31 million construction loan for the planned five-story development at 1529 N. Fremont St., brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle, which arranged the financing, announced.
As rental demand in Chicago outpaces the amount of new units hitting the market, CityPads’ development will be made up of smaller units priced attainably for residents of moderate means while being located in walkable areas with convenient access to
public transit and neighborhood amenities.
“CityPads’ recent similar projects, Tapestry Station and The Edge on Broadway, were delivered in March 2024 and June 2020, respectively, and outperformed expectations. We anticipate with the current pent-up demand coupled with diminished supply, 1529 N Fremont will follow a similar trajectory,”
JLL Capital Markets Senior Director Lucas Borges said in a statement.
JLL’s announcement didn’t disclose the lender but said it was a four-year loan from a life insurance company.
The project is fully entitled, meaning the developer received approval for the required zoning change from the Chicago City Council.
CityPads plans to break ground on the project in the third quarter. It’s set to include four stories of rental units above 9,500 square feet of retail space and 29 parking spaces, with studio, one- and two-bedroom layouts averaging 500 square feet. CityPads Principal and Managing Partner Andy Ahitow previously told Crain’s that the units will be priced at affordable rents for people who earn 60% to 140% of the area median income.
“The concept is to create housing for people who are working in the area,” he said at the time.
“It’s desperately needed. People call it the missing middle. Not enough developers are building apartments that average people can afford.”
That’s also the focus of CityPads’ other projects, which
the 120-unit Tapestry
This house on Northwood Lane in Highland, Ind., sold in a few days and for more than the asking price. SERAmUR pROpERtIES
include
Station in Evanston and the 105unit Edge on Broadway in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood.
Borges, along with JLL Associate Ryan Sullivan, represented the borrowers in arranging the financing.
A rendering of CityPads’ planned five-story apartment complex at 1529 N. Fremont St. in Lincoln Park | CItYpADS
chicagosfoodbank.org/crains
How many pickleball courts does the city really need?
Is the local market at risk of becoming oversaturated? When will the sport peak? Here’s what we found out
By Jack Grieve
Being a reporter in Chicago nowadays means having an email inbox full of press releases announcing new pickleball courts.
Crain’s sometimes reports on those new facilities, at least the notable ones, because dinking is not just a popular recreational sport but also big business. Pickleball courts have quickly become the most in-demand amenities for commercial and residential real estate developers alike, and some local municipalities are dishing out hundreds of thousands of dollars to build public play spaces.
Our newsroom was taken aback, however, when an Arizona-based pickleball franchise sent us a release last month promising 36 new pickleball locations to open across Illinois. Surely there cannot be an additional three dozen facilities’ worth of dinking demand here, right?
We decided to take a step back. Just how popular has pickleball become? Is the market in Chicago at risk of becoming oversaturated? When will the sport peak?
Here’s what we found.
Pickleball entered the mainstream in 2022 and continues to be the country’s fastest-growing sport. Roughly 4.4% of Americans played pickleball at least once in 2023, up from about 3% in 2022, according to survey data from the nonprofit trade organization Sports & Fitness Industry Association, or SFIA. That figure was more like 1% in the years leading up to the pandemic.
The Midwest is roughly on par with national trends. Pickleball participation jumped to about 4.6% last year across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, per the SFIA.
As participation increased, so did the need for places to play.
The U.S. netted 11,885 known pickleball facilities with just over 50,000 courts by the end of 2023, according to USA Pickleball, the sport’s governing body. Illinois
is home to more than 380 locations and nearly 1,800 courts, split roughly equal between indoors and outdoors — and those numbers have only grown since.
Largest facility
In Chicago, the largest facility is SPF Pickleball, which spans 42,000 square feet at the former Brooklyn Boulders space in Lincoln Park. SPF opened in January, boasts eight pickleball courts and is still nearly always full, said co-founder Rich Green. Green, himself a player, sees the proliferation of pickleball courts as simply a story of supply and demand. “There was a moment in time where there was a tremendous supply and demand imbalance, and now market forces are starting to come into play,” he said. “There is still a supply and demand imbalance in Chicago, but it’s not what it was two years ago or a year ago.”
Whereas in 2022 and 2023, folks were so desperate to play that new facilities could thrive by just providing paddles and nets, Green says new locations now must offer more to stand out in an increasingly crowded market. SPF, for this reason, features bars, saunas, a cafe and more. “We’re really a full hospitality experience mixed with pickleball,” he said.
Most new facilities popping up around Chicago are not fullservice indoor hospitality experiences like SPF, though. The majority of courts are either opening in existing parks or being pitched as amenities by real estate developers to attract tenants.
The Old Post Office building in the southwest corner of the Loop, for example, boasts a rooftop pickleball court, as does The Porter apartment building in Lincoln Park.
Chicago native Scott Miller is
CEO of PickleTile, an Austin, Texas-based construction company specializing in pickleball courts. The onslaught of new project requests has not slowed for them.
“Pickleball is one of the largest, most popular amenities for new (homeowners associations), new condos,” he said. The appeal for developers, he thinks, is pickleball requires less space than other amenities like tennis courts or swimming pools. His team can fit four pickleball courts in the same space it would take to build one tennis court.
Miller acknowledges the pace at which courts are being constructed may slow, but he is bullish it won’t stop anytime soon.
“At some point, everything will peak, but I still think we’re in the infant stages,” he said. “Right now, you might feel like, ‘Wow, there’s so many pickleball courts being built,’ but it’s just a correc-
tion. It’s playing catch-up.”
“At some point, yes, there will be enough pickleball courts to service the demand, and you might see a gradual slowdown in new court construction,” he added. “But I think we’re still a couple years out from that.”
Inherently loud
He said pickleball has been expanding despite having a weight tied to its ankles holding it a back. The slowing force: noise. Pickleball is inherently loud, and many project planners, particularly those in the suburbs, have struggled to ease neighbors’ concerns over the possible disturbance. But soundproofing technology is advancing, and developers are able to pitch projects without fear of such pushback. This month in Sycamore, PickleTile is set to debut a new court design that suppresses sound by about 50%. And while the prototype is more costly — a single sound-suppressing court installation from PickleTile costs about $105,000, compared with its standard $65,000 to $75,000 — Miller said buy-in has already been strong and it’s proof that pickleball’s ceiling may keep getting higher.
It’s impossible to say exactly how many pickleball courts Chicago needs. Perhaps the sport will dwindle out and the courts will be repurposed with whatever becomes the next big amenity. Or maybe the sport will further infiltrate the mainstream and pickleball will become as commonplace in public parks as tennis is now.
We also cannot verify whether Illinois really does have the demand for 36 new courts from an out-of-state franchisor. After sending the initial release, the Arizona-based company did not respond to four separate followup inquiries from Crain’s. The self-proclaimed “world’s largest indoor pickleball entity” currently operates three facilities nationwide. It appears their plans for three dozen new locations in Illinois may still be cooking.
Willkie nabs 11-person team from Mayer Brown for Chicago office
Leading the departure is longtime capital markets attorney Edward Best, who is leaving the firm after 38 years
By Mark Weinraub
Mayer Brown's Edward Best is leading a team of lawyers decamping for Willkie Farr & Gallagher after the capital markets chief spent 38 years at the Chicago-based law firm.
“I could have stuck around, been fat and happy for a few more years and then just decided to retire, but I was looking for a challenge and looking for an opportunity,” Best told Crain’s in an interview.
Best, who has 10 attorneys joining him, said keeping his team intact was crucial to mak-
ing the move. He will co-chair the capital markets practice group at New York-based Willkie and has committed to work there at least five to seven years.
With the most recent hires, Willkie has grown its Chicago office to nearly 100 lawyers since launching here in 2020.
“Willkie Chicago’s growth continues to focus on strategically offering to its clients and the business community in Chicago and beyond those practices in which Willkie excels in its global platform,” Craig Martin, the firm’s Midwest chairman, said in a statement.
The new Wilkie partners include capital markets and M&A lawyers Jennifer Carlson, John Ablan, Esther Chang and Susan Rabinowitz.
Best’s practice focuses on offerings by banks, insurance companies and specialty finance companies. He also advises companies in the financial sector on mergers and acquisitions.
“A big part of our practice is very interest rate-sensitive,” Best said. “If the economy holds up and interest rates come down, we would expect both the capital market side to be pretty busy . . . as well as on the M&A front.”
SPF Pickleball in Lincoln Park boasts eight courts that are almost always occupied. | CAROL FOX AND ASSOCIAtES
Willkie Farr & Gallagher’s offices are at 300 N. LaSalle St. | COStAR GROUp
Cleveland-based rival launches ad blitz near Rate’s HQ
the two companies were the top two retail-only mortga ge lenders by value of loans closed last year, according to the Scotsman Guide
By Mark Weinraub
Cleveland-based CrossCountry Mortgage is moving in on its Chicago rival’s turf, literally, through an advertising push seemingly targeted directly at smaller lender Rate.
CrossCountry recently bought up all the advertising space, a practice known as station domination, on both sides of the el platform at the Chicago Transit Authority's Irving Park Brown Line stop directly abutting the headquarters of the company formerly known as Guaranteed Rate.
The 14 signs, which do not mention Rate by name, highlight the size of CrossCountry’s business and the number of loans it closes. The back of Rate’s headquarters overlooking the southeast corner of the stop has a billboard mimicking CTA stop signage.
No other CrossCountry signs were noted along the rest of the Brown Line.
“That is, for sure, on purpose,” said Gini Dietrich, founder and CEO at Arment Dietrich, a marketing communications firm. “I do not know that a consumer would
necessarily pay that close attention, but Guaranteed Rate is for sure. Every time they walk into their office, they see that.”
The nearest CrossCountry branch is about 5 miles southwest of the Irving Park stop in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood.
The once red-hot mortgage industry has slowed in recent years due to soaring home prices, a tight supply of housing and high interest rates. Market watchers are on standby to see if expected interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve will unleash a surge of pent-up demand.
CrossCountry declined to comment when asked if the advertising push was targeted at a specific neighborhood or part of a broader Chicago campaign. Rate did not respond to requests for comment.
Intersection, the advertising partner for the CTA, also declined to comment.
CrossCountry’s silence on the matter was surprising, Dietrich said, likening the move to fastfood companies sniping at each other on social media, which consumers usually take in good fun while highlighting the brand.
“If I were advising them, I would
be telling them to talk to everyone,” Dietrich said. “There is no legal reason not to.”
CrossCountry made $30.5 billion in mortgage loans in 2023, topping $27.5 billion combined for Rate and its Guaranteed Rate Affinity unit, according to the Scotsman Guide, a trade publication for mortgage lenders. The companies were the top two retail-only mortgage lenders by value of loans closed.
The guide’s list showed CrossCountry closed 90,656 loans and Rate closed 74,944 loans in 2023.
The Chicago Tribune published a
report in mid-June painting a picture of a toxic work environment at Rate. The story, which was based on interviews with about 80 former Rate employees, along with court documents and internal company records, quoted two CrossCountry employees who left Rate for the company in late 2022.
Rate and its founder and CEO, Victor Ciardelli, denied the allegations outlined in the Tribune story, blaming the criticism on disgruntled former employees and competitors who stood to benefit from a negative portrayal of the
company. Rate issued a statement at the time describing the firm as a positive workplace where women are supported.
The two mortgage rivals have also tangled in litigation, with Rate filing lawsuits against former employees who have left the firm for CrossCountry, accusing them of stealing confidential information and violating agreements not to solicit business from Rate's customers.
Rate, whose former name adorns the South Side home of the Chicago White Sox, adopted the shortened version this summer.
CrossCountry Mortgage ads plaster the CTA’s Irving Park Brown Line stop near rival Rate’s headquarters in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood. | mArK WeINrAUb
EDITORIAL
Will Brandon Johnson pass this budget test?
You didn't need a crystal ball to see it coming.
Chicago now faces a budget shortfall of $982.4 million for 2025, a gap that must be bridged even as Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration seeks to close the $223 million deficit that still remains in 2024.
But now the size and depth of the city's budget hole is official. Johnson outlined it all in an Aug. 29 informational call with reporters. The mayor won't detail how he plans to address the shortfall until October but, as he told the assembled press corps, "there are sacrifices that will be made."
Of course, the budget gap was widely anticipated. Johnson's budget director, Annette Guzman, told Crain's Justin Laurence on Aug. 7 the deficit could reach nearly $1 billion, and now here we are.
The mayor now encounters the challenge every elected official does at times like this, and the options usually boil down to two: Find new revenue — or cut costs. Johnson was elected, however, on the power of a spoken promise as well as a tacit understanding. The promise: He wouldn't raise property taxes. The understanding: He'd look out for the interests of the unions that swept him into office.
Unfortunately, personnel costs are driving much of the shortfall Johnson now faces, including a new contract reached last year with the city's largest police union and
PERSONAL VIEW
an anticipated new deal with the firefighters union. Will organized labor tolerate solutions such as a hiring freeze or, potentially even more unsavory to them, actual reductions in headcount? As Crain's has reported, Guzman told city department leaders this summer to prepare for scenarios where they are asked to cut 3% to 5% of their budgets, which would be tough to do
without touching personnel costs. Johnson's pledge to hold steady on property taxes faces a further stress test in light of the other factors that are making the city's budget hole deeper now: a decline in revenue from corporate taxes collected by the state and passed on to Chicago, as well as expected increased pension costs, as the city climbs a mandatory ramp
to adequately funding its four beleaguered retirement funds. Two additional monkey wrenches in the works: uncertainty over the $175 million pension payment that Chicago Public Schools is rebuffing and a $150 million line item to continue caring for migrants sent to the city.
Johnson says he’s still committed to progressive revenue options, but his ability to increase revenue through expanding the sales tax to services is limited by a reluctance in Springfield to take up tax-hike legislation and by a City Council not eager to increase taxes on residents.
Of course, Johnson does have other options — none of which he should take. He could borrow his way out of the problem. He wouldn't be the first. But, of course, such a move would plunge the city back into debt and extend today's pain far into the future.
He might also revisit some of the old tropes that fired up his base as a candidate — sticking it to the city's corporate class — but that would only further damage Chicago's already scuffed-up reputation as a city that's not friendly to business.
It remains to be seen whether the mayor has the fortitude to look his former labormovement brethren in the eye and tell them what they don't want to hear: that the status quo can't hold, that Chicago taxpayers can't afford this much government, that something has to give.
We'll find out for sure in October.
Reset the narrative on everything from small biz to immigration
None of us is a monolith. I am an immigrant from India, a woman and champion of women with Let’s Talk Womxn, an entrepreneur/restaurateur, a former World Bank economist, and former management consultant with McKinsey & Co. My identities intersect with the lens of our economy, small business policy, and women’s rights to contrast the stark choices we face in this election.
Rohini Dey, who holds a doctorate in international economics, is founder of Vermilion restaurant and Let’s Talk Womxn, an economic empowerment collaboration among women restaurateurs.
At the outset, let’s transform the narrative from the dire versions of the U.S. economy to overt celebration. Is the U.S. utopian perfection? Far from it. But my goodness, let me set the stage for optimism and gratitude. There are advanced countries reeling for decades, struggling with growth, economic and political stability — Japan, many in the European Union, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and frankly the entire world compared to us. Our value creation, productivity, technological advances and GDP growth is something to celebrate wildly and shout out from the rooftops. Our fiscal policy COVID stimulus package
— the multiplier effects of the infrastructure law and employment restoration — and our monetary policy to curb inflation are downright phenomenal. My business and many would have folded had we not passed Paycheck Protection Program rounds, Illinois Business Interruption Grants, and restored our economy so rapidly after we were teetering on the worst precipice in 2020. For this, I can’t credit and commend the Biden-Harris administration enough.
Our obsession with the Magnificent Seven tech stocks, S&P 500 and the Dow should not make us lose sight that small businesses are 46% of the workforce in the U.S., two-thirds of new job creation, and 44% of our GDP. In addition to being the backbone of our economy, small business is its cerebral cortex as the stem of innovation. The acorn for all big business. Unfortunately, much is amiss for small businesses today. I speak to our 120 Chicago Let’s Talk Womxn entrepreneurs and a combined 1,600-plus businesses across 15 cities monthly. As employers, we want
to offer livable wages, family and sick leave, health care, a 401(k), the basics. We can’t. It just doesn’t add up. Most of us are struggling to stay afloat, with skyrocketing labor costs, cost of goods and fixed costs.
For our employees, it is the lack of a safety net that makes an adequate standard of living impossible. Here the U.S. lags all developed economies and the world. While much work remains, the Affordable Care Act and the beginning of curbs on medication pricing is a terrific start to fix warped health care costs and health inequity. Growing our safety net, undoing core elements of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act's regressive tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, while expanding the child tax credit and earned income tax credit are the right direction for a modicum of equity. Addressing our soaring inequality must be a key priority.
Half of all children in the U.S. live with one parent, and we know what gender that parent is (single mothers are four times that of fathers). Instead of empowering and helping women as parents and as our workforce, half our government is obsessing about mandating motherhood. Equating women with chattel. How deep-rooted misogynist a society are we to label this as “family values”? How about eliminating
the “propagation tax” instead? The global average for mandated paid family leave is 29 weeks, and the U.S. is one of eight globally to not have it, a massive bottleneck on our workforce, especially women. Let’s talk immigration, another incredible U.S. comparative advantage that we have packaged as our biggest downfall. We are fortunate that the U.S. is a beacon for talent worldwide. Our education system draws the world's brightest with a million international students at any time, mostly in STEM and business. Young, driven, hardworking talent come to our shores. I came here for a Ph.D. in economics. The Satya Nadellas (CEO of Microsoft), the Sunder Pichais (CEO of Google), your doctors, economists, tech workers and many more are the world’s precious brain trust gift to us. Let’s cherish and grow this instead of restricting work permit visas and turning away the bulk of this precious talent. My suggestions: Quadruple H1B visas, launch an “entrepreneurship visa” to encourage more startups, invest in and even pay this brain trust to stay. With an aging demographic and declining labor force, what better solution for our long-term vitality instead of forcing pregnancies?
At the other end of the spectrum, the en-
BLOO m BERG
Generational transitions can be tricky. Just ask the Democrats.
When 78-year-old Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump chose 39year-old Sen. J.D. Vance to be his vice-presidential running mate, many wondered why. Vance was barely a year and a half into his sixyear term in the Senate, his first elected office.
Many speculate the former president chose Vance in part because he wanted a standard-bearer who would continue his MAGA movement for decades to come.
On the Democrat side, 81-yearold incumbent President Joe Biden easily won his party’s nomination for a second term. Yet he was unceremoniously forced into a generational transition by naysayers within his party after a halting debate performance.
Defiantly resistant to stepping aside initially, Biden ultimately overrode his ego and unwavering belief in his ability to continue. He withdrew from the race and endorsed 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic presidential nominee.
Navigating generational transitions is one of the biggest challenges for any institution that cares about continuity and legacy — regardless of whether it’s a political party, a public company, a nonprofit or a family business.
A number of factors make generational transitions particularly difficult. For one, the timing can be unpredictable. Witness Biden’s sudden reversal and decision to step aside as the Democrats’ nominee. While the Democrat Party’s leadership transition appears to have been surprisingly smooth, I’ve worked with more than one family where the patriarch’s sudden death took a toll on both the family and the business.
In political parties, as in families, multiple people often vie for the top spot. While Trump long ago co-opted the Republican Party, one of the disagreements among Democrats before Biden stepped aside was who should be his successor. Many party leaders and big donors were clamoring for someone other than Harris. Thanks to the organizing of Black women, which had been happening quietly in the background for years, and
NARRATIVE
From page 8
tire supply chain of many sectors — from farm labor to distribution to our kitchens and retail — is deeply dependent on immigrants. They are the most law-abiding, hardworking, and driven in our workforce. To label them as anything else for political gains is a false narrative. Undocumented immigrants would love nothing better than the chance to pay taxes and live in dignity. And let’s be clear, vast swaths of our economy would collapse without them.
Many false narratives to fundamentally alter, much to be optimistic about, and much to work on. Now may the best woman win!
the organic groundswell of enthusiastic support for Harris in response to their call to action, party leaders and big donors fell in line with the will of voters, and Harris quickly consolidated her leadership of the party.
Satisfying key stakeholders is another factor that can make generational transitions tricky. Trump hasn’t actually transitioned leadership to Vance yet, and already more and more Republicans are questioning his choice of Vance. In family businesses, skeptical stakeholders might be family
members, employees, customers or your banker.
If you are a member of a family business, regardless of whether you are a member of one of the two major political parties or a third party or, like me and a growing number of other registered voters across the country, have no party affiliation, consider these factors when navigating your own generational transition. Process. Generally, transitions that are most successful are approached as a process that occurs over a period of years, rather than
a passing of the torch at a point in time.
Preparing the next generation. While the focus on preparing the next generation often centers on specific skills, thorough preparation is multidimensional and includes aligning values, transferring actual authority, and transitioning personal and professional relationships.
Parallel planning. As much as the next generation needs to prepare to assume leadership, so, too, does the incumbent generation need to prepare for their next chap-
ter, and the institution itself needs to undergo a transition to fit the new leader’s style and priorities.
As Democrats continue to navigate their generational transition, let us all remember that legacy is not something you leave behind when you die. Rather, your legacy is defined by what you do in the here and now.
Thomasina Williams is founder of Sankofa Legacy Advisors and The FEW: Family Enterprise Women, advising business-owning families on leadership transitions.
Recognize a leader at a health care organization involved in expanding health care business, service or technology.
How clinical trials fit into Walgreens’ turnaround plan
As of August, the unit works with more than 25 biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, nonprofits and government partners
By
Walgreens' clinical trials unit is shaping up to play a critical role in the retail pharmacy's transformation strategy.
This past year has been recovery mode for Walgreens, and more changes are coming. The company plans to shutter hundreds more of its drugstores over the next few years, in addition to rethinking its healthcare services portfolio, which includes primary and urgent care, specialty pharmacy and home care services.
The clinical trials unit launched in mid-2022 under former CEO Roz Brewer, who also led Walgreens' move into healthcare services. As of August, the clinical trials unit works with more than 25 biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, nonprofits and government partners to conduct clinical trials ranging from an investigational drug for seizures to a blood test to detect colorectal cancer.
mendous amount of commitment all the way from the board and [CEO Tim Wentworth]. You've heard Tim talk quite extensively about clinical trials. What it represents is a capital-light model that leverages the physical footprint, the assets, the trust, the engagement with our consumers.
What's the value in clinical trials for Walgreens as a business?
There is obviously a contractual component to our engagement models with our industry partners, so certainly this is a revenue stream within the healthcare segment of Walgreens. It also drives additional [people] into our stores and our pharmacies … that are asking the question, “I just heard about this clinical trial. Can you talk to me more about it?” Those conversations are happening on a regular basis.
What is Walgreens' focus for clinical trials?
To be able to solve complex [healthcare] issues, it really requires out-of-box thinking of how to show up to the communities differently than what people have done historically. That's what Walgreens is doing, and that's what we're doing with clinical trials, so it is part of the broader strategy as we move forward. What makes Walgreens’ approach to clinical trials different from others?
pliant, regulatory-aligned enterprise to really execute and deliver against the work that our partners ask us to do.
Is the strategy affected by recent changes to the store footprint?
Last week, Walgreens announced a five-year partnership valued at up to $100 million with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority using Walgreens' infrastructure to invest in decentralized clinical research, where patients participate remotely.
In an interview, Ramita Tandon, chief clinical trials officer at Walgreens, said the company's clinical trials unit has big plans to reach more patients and will remain a key part of the company's healthcare strategy. The interview was edited for length and clarity.
Will clinical trials be part of Walgreens' turnaround?
It is part of the DNA of how we operationalize services, beyond just the traditional retail services, pharmacy services. There's a tre-
When we built out the enterprise and launched in June 2022, it was really centered around two key focus areas for us. Number one, tackling the issues around lack of representation. Less than 5% of this nation participates in clinical research, and [of] those that do participate, 75% are white, which means the lion's share of this nation have not even had a chance to be part of clinical research.
And two, accessibility. Traditionally, and to some extent today, the medical research enterprise has been set up to support urban, affluent white neighborhoods because that's where a lot of the academic medical centers are. … [We] use our physical infrastructure because it's convenient. Seventy-eight percent of our populations are within five miles of a Walgreens.
I would say, first and foremost, the commitment. When some of our colleagues [at other companies] decided to move away, we've come out quite strong, saying we're doubling down because that’s the right thing to do.
I have very strong leadership that comes from the clinical trial space. Some people have been there for more than 25 years, like myself and others. We really built an enterprise with folks that have the experience and expertise to be able to take what's happened in the industry, understand some of those challenges, take a look at the assets we have and implement that model into this organization.
I think the BARDA relationship is a testament to the investments that we've made at Walgreens to make sure [the clinical trials program] is based on a highly com-
We work very closely with our internal teams, our corporate real estate teams and everybody to make sure that we're identifying the right markets. When we work with industry partners, the government entities, we're very mindful of where they want to go because oftentimes they have specific markets in mind. We look at the demographics, we look at what that patient community looks like, and make sure we're selecting the right centers before we even move ahead.
How do you market clinical trials to customers?
We email, we text, we sometimes snail mail, and [use the] call center. It's dependent upon the trial, the disease condition and what sponsors are comfortable with. As we start to get into communities — particularly socially vulnerable communities — that requires a bit more effort. That requires our local teams to start spending time to educate folks, get them comfortable, so when they
do get a message from Walgreens, there’s a level of familiarity. We do use in-store tactics. You'll sometimes see kiosks with brochures and flyers. When people pick up their [prescriptions] from the pharmacist, if we're running clinical trials, it'll get flagged to the pharmacist that that patient could be eligible. We do put information in the [prescription] bag, and there's also a QR code that patients can go home with to learn more about the trials.
What goals do you have for the clinical trials unit in the next three to five years?
For us as a business, it's around really tackling those two [questions] — Can we move the needle on the lack of representation? Can we start to see more diverse patient populations participating? As we think about accessibility, we've got [goals] around how many patients are we driving from our communities into our stores, coming in to be able to have clinical trial services? My goal is that … [we] really stay on the forefront of the role that pharmacy plays in medical research, and more importantly, part of the healthcare ecosystem that we're operating in.
Caroline Hudson writes for Crain's sister brand Modern Healthcare.
Dave Guilmette named as CEO of employee benefits firm Alight
By Jon Asplund
Dave Guilmette has been named CEO of employee benefits firm Alight in a succession plan that saw the company sell off two units and have Stephan Scholl step down as chief executive officer and member of the company’s board.
Guilmette joined Chicagobased Alight’s board in May and he will continue to hold the vice chair position, the company said in a press release on Aug. 26.
Guilmette, 62, is former CEO of Global Health Solutions, a multibillion-dollar division of Aon, the release said, and
brings significant expertise on innovation, large-scale solution development, commercial partnerships and mergers and acquisitions.
Scholl, who stepped down upon announcement of Guilmette’s appointment, will remain with the company as an adviser for six months, Alight said in the release. Year to date, the company’s shares are down 12%.
Alight, formerly known as Hewitt Associates, was spun off from Aon in 2017 and went public in 2021 through a blank-check initial public offering via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
On Aug. 6, Alight reported in its second-quarter financials release that the board had been focusing on succession planning for several months following a loss in 2023 and a plan to simplify the business.
The company also said Aug. 6 that Scholl would step down when his successor was named. Guilmette was named to the board in May.
Under the terms of the business unit sale, Alight was to get $1 billion upfront with up to $200 million in seller notes to be paid in the future.
In the second quarter, its diluted earnings loss, per share, was $0.01 compared to $0.14 in the prior
year period, the company said.
“Dave’s success in the industry and his intimacy within the all-important payer, provider, enterprise employer and insurer networks make him the right leader to guide Alight as it moves forward as a simplified platform company,” Alight Chair William P. Foley II said in the Aug. 26 release. “Dave is a highly engaged director who already works closely with our executive management team, so he will hit the ground running in the CEO role and support a seamless transition for the team and clients.”
“Our technology transformation and recent divestiture have
laid the groundwork for us to emerge as a much stronger company with a significantly improved financial profile,” Guilmette said in the release. “I know Alight’s colleagues are intensely focused and inspired by the opportunity to partner with our clients to deliver success for them and their people. Working closely with our executive team and board of directors, I already see many opportunities for us to move even faster in addressing these evolving client needs and reorienting around technologyrich services that enhance our competitiveness and deliver even more value for Alight’s clients.”
Caroline Hudson, Modern Healthcare
Ramita Tandon
LAW FIRM
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
To place your listing, visit www.chicagobusiness.com/peoplemoves or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com
ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN
FGM Architects, Oak Brook
Anna Harvey, AIA, has been promoted to Vice President at FGM Architects (FGMA), an employee-owned firm offering architecture, planning and interior design services nationally in 8 offices across 5 states. Harvey joined FGMA in 2000 and focuses on the firm’s PK12 Education, Higher Education and Municipal practices. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Master of Architecture from the University of Utah.
ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN
FGM Architects, Oak Brook
Kyle Kim, AIA, has been promoted to Vice President at FGM Architects (FGMA), an employee-owned firm offering architecture, planning and interior design services nationally in 8 offices across 5 states. Kim joined FGMA in 2009 and balances his time between the firm’s PK-12 Education and Higher Education practices. He received his Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign.
ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN
GREC Architects, Chicago
Michael Comiskey, AIA, NCARB, has been elevated to Associate with GREC Architects. With over a decade of experience, Michael has been with GREC since 2022. His expertise spans multifamily residential and hospitality projects. He leads project design, coordination, and management, while mentoring younger studio members. He is currently leading the design of a boutique hotel in Charleston, SC. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree from Miami University and a master’s from Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE
Ryan Companies US, Inc., Chicago
INSURANCE BROKERAGE
Christensen Group Insurance, Chicago
AUTOMOTIVE
Roush Honda, Westerville
ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN
FGM Architects, Oak Brook
Elizabeth Wojtowicz, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, has been promoted to Vice President at FGM Architects (FGMA), an employee-owned firm offering architecture, planning and interior design services in 8 offices across 5 states. Wojtowicz, FGMA’s Chief People Officer since 2021, has led initiatives focused on talent management, diversity and inclusion, organizational culture as well as recruitment, training and development. She received her Bachelor of Science in HR Management from Central Michigan University.
Jeff Brindley, President and CEO of Roush Holdings, Inc., a 100% ESOP and parent company of Roush Honda, Westerville, OH, and Valley Honda, Aurora/Naperville, IL, announced the appointment of Mark VanBenschoten, Chief Financial Officer, to its Board of Directors. Jeff Brindley stated: ‘Our Board is thrilled to have Mark join us as we continue to grow our 100% employee-owned company. This appointment further strengthens the board’s commitment and dedication to serving our employee-owners. We are humbled by the tremendous commitment our 450 employee-owners have to serving our customers and the communities in which we operate.’
Mark VanBenschoten will join current Board members Jeff Brindley, Pete Jones, and Robert Navarre.
AUTOMOTIVE
Valley Honda,
To order frames or plaques of profiles contact Lauren Melesio at lmelesio@crain.com
Ryan Companies US, Inc. is excited to announce two key changes. Steve Stecker, CHC, has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Project Development, Healthcare. In this role, Stecker will expand the company’s third-party construction business and support the real estate development team in the healthcare sector, leveraging his extensive industry expertise. Meanwhile, Kevin Schoolcraft has relocated from Dallas to Chicago. As Vice President, he will oversee healthcare real estate development across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Schoolcraft will focus on all areas of the healthcare sector including hospitals, surgery centers, medical office buildings, specialty centers and more.
Christensen Group Insurance, a leading national insurance brokerage, is excited to announce its expansion into the Chicago Metropolitan area. To lead this growth, the company has appointed Chuck Mazzanti as a Commercial Lines Producer. With over 15 years of industry experience and a strong record of client retention and satisfaction, Mazzanti’s client-focused approach aligns perfectly with CG’s values. This expansion enhances service delivery to clients and extends CG’s reach within the Midwest.
Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres LLC, Chicago
Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres welcomes Erin McAdams Franzblau as a partner in the firm’s Employment & Labor group. Erin is a management-side employment lawyer and litigator, counseling employers on nearly every sub-specialty of employment law and acting as employment counsel for M&A transactions. She advises organizations on a wide range of day-to-day employment issues, including, more recently, pay transparency legislation, paid time off mandates, and the evolution of restrictive covenant law.
EDUCATION
Roosevelt University Heller College of Business, Chicago
Roosevelt University is proud to the announce the appointment of Dr. Glen H. Brodowsky as the new dean of the Heller College of Business. Dr. Brodowsky brings over 28 years of experience to Roosevelt from California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) where he served as chair of the management and marketing departments. He has extensive expertise in marketing, marketing research, and cross-cultural marketing and consumer behavior in China and Taiwan.
Ari Mintzer is a partner in Levenfeld Pearlstein’s Corporate Group. He represents clients such as private and public companies, private equity sponsors, and financial institutions in sophisticated M&A and financing transactions, including litigation finance transactions with non-traditional asset classes. He is adept at negotiating and drafting complex credit facilities, mezzanine loans, and multi-tranche financings in connection with acquisitions, recapitalizations, and restructurings.
LEGAL
Honigman LLP, Chicago
Honigman LLP welcomes Angela Johnson Reier its Corporate Department as partner in the firm’s Transactions & Counseling Practice Group. Reier focuses her practice on U.S. and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, providing a holistic strategy comprised of legal and business support throughout the deal lifecycle, including overseeing due diligence, conducting purchase agreement negotiations, evaluating for regulatory compliance, and advising on integration or separation execution.
REAL ESTATE
ML Realty Partners, Itasca
Jeff Brindley, President and CEO of Roush Holdings, Inc., a 100% ESOP and parent company of Roush Honda, Westerville, OH, and Valley Honda, Aurora/Naperville, IL, announced the appointment of Chief Operating Officer, to its Board of Directors. Jeff Brindley stated: ‘Our Board is thrilled to have Casey join us as we continue to grow our 100% employee-owned company. This appointment further strengthens the board’s commitment and dedication to serving our employee-owners. We are humbled by the tremendous commitment our 450 employee-owners have to serving our customers and the communities in which we operate.’
Casey Brindley will join current Board members Jeff Brindley, Pete Jones, and Robert Navarre.
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 Blake was promoted to EVP, Head of Specialized Lending at Wintrust Financial Corporation. Paul joined Wintrust in 2010. Michael Capesius was promoted to SVP, Senior Relationship Manager, Business Banking at Schaumburg Bank & Trust Company, N.A. Michael joined Wintrust in 2022.
LAW
Park Gold Group, Arlington Heights
Park Gold Group is excited to introduce Family Law Associate, Britney Retess. Attorney Retess brings a wealth of expertise in successfully litigating Divorce, Child Custody & Support, and Family Estate & Probate matters. She is a member of the Black Women Lawyers’ Association, and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. She also serves as a Board Member of the I Am Abel Foundation, a local nonprofit whose initiatives focus on advancing students at the high-school, collegiate, and law-school level.
Grace Crossin joined ML Realty Partners as Financial Analyst. She will perform valuations and underwriting within the finance, accounting and acquisition teams at ML Realty Partners. Crossin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Schoolcraft LAW
Levenfeld Pearlstein, LLC, Chicago
Capesius
Luxury rentals at prices that ‘Winnetka has never seen’ planned for long-stalled location
the developer is targeting high-net-worth empty nesters a t a site where previous plans have misfired over the course of 17 years
By Dennis Rodkin
The new owner of a longfallow site in downtown Winnetka is looking to high-networth empty nesters to fill the dozens of apartments he plans to offer at monthly rents of $7,000 to over $12,500.
“People who are transitioning out of their $5 million, $7 million houses but don’t want to leave Winnetka” are the target market for the 59 units John Murphy’s Murphy Development Group plans for the site at Lincoln Street and Elm Avenue.
In past years, many of them would have moved into the city, but “the demand is here (in Winnetka) since COVID,” Murphy said.
Since the village approved Murphy’s plan for the site in March, “we’ve been getting calls saying, ‘Can I reserve a unit now?’ ” Murphy said. If construction goes as planned, the 59 units will be ready for occupancy in spring 2027, he said.
and the slow return of restaurants and other amenities.
A developer in Highland Park told Crain’s in May that his condos priced at $3 million and up — four of seven of them under contract long before construction is finished — appeal to a group who “have stopped moving into the city.”
In Winnetka, “the level of luxury is going to be high,” Murphy said. “Winnetka has never seen anything like this pricing.”
Listed for rent today on Zillow in Winnetka were half a dozen apartments and townhouses with monthly rent of $1,600 to about $3,700, and a 20-room mansion for $43,500 a month.
Murphy’s firm and a partner, capital executive Christopher Merrill, announced in recent days that they have purchased the 1.21-acre site. Murphy would not disclose the price.
A source close to the deal said the buyers paid $14 million to Romspen, a foreclosure affiliate of a commercial lender in Toronto. Romspen acquired most of the properties in a court-ordered sale in 2021 and bought one piece, a former pharmacy, in a conventional transaction in 2023.
The site, less than a block from a Metra station, contains six low-rise commercial buildings, which have stood empty and unused while the redevelopment was in limbo.
The Winnetka project isn’t the first to benefit from North Shore empty nesters’ newfound distaste for moving downtown because of issues with crime
The source said that Romspen had about $29 million in debt on the properties, which would mean the sale to Murphy was at less than half the debt.
The site, less than a block from a Metra station, contains
six low-rise commercial buildings, which have stood empty and unused while the redevelopment was in limbo. They’ve been vacant for at least seven years, a village official told Crain’s earlier this year. It's been 17 years since developers first started proposing redevelopment for the block. The first proposal fizzled in the recession of 2008. Another developer bought the site in 2012 and rolled out a plan for 120 units, later shrinking it to 70 and then to 61.
That $98 million plan collapsed, leaving what Winnetka Village President Chris Rintz told Crain’s at the time was “a horrible black eye” in a central location in town. (Rintz did not respond to a request for comment
on the Murphy plan.)
In 2020, a third development firm, one with family ties in Winnetka, announced a plan to pick up the project but never moved forward.
Murphy said village officials played matchmaker between his firm and Romspen, knowing his success reviving a stalled luxury apartment project in Skokie and his track record of developments including the 47-story Paragon apartments in the South Loop and the 39story condo tower Lincoln Park 2550.
Construction will likely start in the first quarter of 2025, Murphy said.
The plan is a four-story building with 59 apartments and 20,000 square feet of ground-
floor commercial space. The building will have 152 indoor parking spaces, 32 of them on the ground floor set aside for public and commercial use in a deal with the village. The rest will be for building residents. Unlike the turreted, Francophile design of the biggest plan to sputter on this site, Murphy’s project, designed by the Chicago firm OKW Architects, has a contemporary take on a Tudor exterior.
While the interiors will be more modern, the historical mix of half-timbers, plaster walls and steep roofs that characterize the Tudor style “is an aesthetic program that has been established and worked in downtown Winnetka for almost a century,” Murphy said.
Two Pritzker Group Venture Capital partners strike out on their own
Sonia Nagar and Adam Koopersmith are raising a $50 million fund that will focus on digital marketplaces
By John Pletz
Two longtime partners at Pritzker Group Venture Capital are launching a $50 million fund.
Sonia Nagar and Adam Koopersmith have begun raising money for SNAK Venture Partners I, according to a securities filing. The fund will focus on digital marketplaces, an area of investment they led at PGVC, a fund co-founded by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“It’s something they’ve been talking about for a while,” says Chris Girgenti, managing partner at PGVC. “They came up with a theme around investing in marketplaces that they wanted to pursue.”
“We’re going to continue to focus on enterprise software,” he says of PGVC. “We’re going to be an (investor) in their fund.”
Koopersmith declined to comment, citing securities regulations. He joined PGVC 20 years ago and was involved in its investments in Chicago-based companies G2, an enterprise software-recommendation engine; Project44, a logistics software unicorn; and SpotHero, a parking marketplace.
Nagar also declined to comment. She had two stints at Pritzker Group, the most recent starting in 2021. She recently led the firm's investment in Fuel Me, a Burr Ridge-based marketplace for fuel.
Girgenti founded PGVC with Pritzker in 1996 as New World Ventures. It later became part of Pritzker Group, an investment firm run by J.B. Pritzker and his brother, Tony, which also includes private equity and traditional fund-of-funds asset management. J.B Pritzker left day-today involvement in the firm after he ran for governor of Illinois six years ago and put his assets in a blind trust.
PGVC has operated a captive fund, bankrolled by the Pritzker brothers, rather than outside investors. The fund, which reloads every four years or so, has done both direct venture investing as well as indirect investing in other venture funds.
Murphy’s project, designed by the Chicago firm OKW Architects, has a contemporary take on a Tudor exterior.
Want to catch a coastal cruise from Navy Pier? You can in 2025.
By Jack Grieve
Navy Pier’s only coastal cruises traversing the Great Lakes are making a comeback in 2025.
The two Victory Cruise Lines vessels, Victory I and Victory II, will return to Chicago after a yearlong hiatus. The 190-passenger vessels were out of commission in 2024 after their previous owners went bankrupt and were forced to sell the ships at auction in April.
The ships were long operated by American Queen Voyages under the names Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator. John Waggoner, who founded American Queen Voyages in 2011 but left the company a few years ago, came out of retirement to buy the vessels back for a relatively cheap $1.9 million. He has since refurbished them and established the Victory brand.
“As long-time enthusiasts of maritime adventures, my wife Claudette and I are thrilled for the team to open reservations of the inaugural season and we prepare to sail these magnificent waters,” Waggoner said in a statement announcing their return. “Our cruise experience will offer many special touches, including being the only cruise line to dock at Chicago’s Navy Pier, and most of all, our ships will be a home away from home exploring all five Great Lakes.”
What makes them unique
Most other Great Lakes cruises originate or end in Milwaukee, but the Victory line is unique in that it is bookended by Chicago and Toronto. Itineraries vary by voyage, but the vessels touch all five Great Lakes and make stops at Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Cleveland, Detroit, Niagara Falls and more.
Cruises are an increasingly popular way to explore the Great Lakes for those seeking an elevated experience and willing to pay for it.
There’s the inherent beauty of the lakes and the surrounding nature, of course, but sailing back and forth between two countries is also a big selling point. Another driver is that vacationers are seeking “experience” travel. People also increasingly want to explore destinations closer to home. Companies therefore are significantly increasing their investments in the region with new and larger ships, longer routes and more frequent service.
The return of the Victory coastal cruises promises to be a boon to Navy Pier’s businesses. “I think this is a great tourism booster,” said Navy Pier President and CEO Marilynn Gardner.
Victory will offer 36 voyages on the Great Lakes each season and bring thousands of maritime tourists to the pier.
“We always like to say the pier is the city’s welcoming front porch and a gateway to the Great Lakes, so it’s really just a great opportunity to ensure international tourists are able to see our incredible city from the lake and experience all the incredible ports in between,” she added.
The victory boats were built in 2001. They span 286 feet in length, small for cruise ships but necessary to navigate the Great Lakes waters. “None of the cruise lines on the Great Lakes are big because they can’t be,” a spokesperson for Great Lakes Cruises said. “If they’re too big, they can’t fit through the canals and the locks that they have to go through.”
Still, the ships boast 101 suites and decks and can accommodate 84 crew members in addition to the 190 passengers.
Victory says the boats are “purpose-built to cruise on all five Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the French-Canadian Maritimes, offering a refreshing alternative to river and ocean
Loop office tower on track for conversion
By Rachel Herzog
A proposal to convert a vintage Loop office tower into apartments is getting a second wind.
Chicago-based Mavrek Development is stepping in as a joint venture partner with Acres Commercial Realty, which took control of the property through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure agreement in March, to convert 65 E. Wacker Place into more than 200 apartments, according to sources with knowledge of the plans.
Another developer, Rochester, N.Y.,-based Intersection Realty Group, had bought the building in 2022 with plans to convert a portion of it into 144 apartments. It wasn’t clear what led to Intersection surrendering the property, but it’s likely the firm faced unfortunate timing with interest rate hikes making large real estate projects a much heavier lift that year.
cruises. The size and maneuverability of these ships are perfectly suited for coastal cruising in this region.” The ships are currently registered in Nassau, Bahamas.
A nine-night cruise from Chicago to Toronto starts at $5,799 per guest, an 11-night cruise from Chicago to Montreal runs $6,999 and a 14-night roundtrip from Chicago costs $8,699.
Plans to turn unused office and industrial buildings into apartments in downtown Chicago keep popping up as the need for workspace wanes while rental demand stays strong. Developers in the West Loop recently proposed projects that would convert two existing warehouse buildings into hundreds of new apartments, and a mostly vacant office tower on the Magnificent Mile is being targeted to be turned into 320 dwelling units. There’s also the city’s LaSalle
Street Reimagined project, which would fund turning four office buildings into more than 1,000 apartments with $151 million in public subsidies.
Mavrek confirmed the firm plans to redevelop the property in partnership with Acres Commercial Realty in a press release on Aug. 23.
"Mavrek is dedicated to reinventing urban spaces by breathing new life into buildings that contribute to Chicago's livelihood," CEO Adam Friedberg said in a statement.
The project would include a mix of floor plans ranging from studios to two-bedroom apartments, with an emphasis on inunit workspaces, according to the developer. Mavrek also said it will preserve the nearly centuryold building's heritage while renovating and adding amenities including a co-working lounge, a fitness center and a rooftop deck.
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, is expected to inform constituents of the Wacker Place proposal and solicit feedback in his newsletter this evening. Reilly’s office didn’t provide a comment. Acres Commercial Realty didn’t respond to a request for comment on the plans.
Mavrek is the developer behind several smaller mixed-use developments on the city’s North Side but has recently raised its profile with larger downtown apartment projects.
Two 190-passenger vessels will be Navy Pier’s only coastal cruises. VICtOrY Cr UISe LINeS
Wheeling Westin hotel sells at steep discount
Local tech executive and real estate investor Ketu Amin is planning a major renovation of the 412-room property
By Danny Ecker
Local technology executive and real estate investor Ketu Amin has added to his collection of suburban hotels, buying a full-service Westin in Wheeling for 34% less than it sold for over a decade ago.
A venture led by Amin, who is president of Schaumburgbased IT services company VinaKom, paid $34 million last month for the 412-room Westin Chicago North Shore at 601 N. Milwaukee Ave. in the northwest suburb, Vinayaka Hospitality CEO Komal Patel confirmed. Patel is married to Amin, and Vinayaka oversees management and operations of Amin's portfolio of 11 hotels in suburban Chicago and Minneapolis.
The sale price at less than $83,000 per room is well below what the hotel was worth when the seller, a venture of Yonkers, N.Y.-based AVR Realty, acquired it as part of a 2018 portfolio deal. Research firm MSCI Real Assets reported the hotel was valued at roughly $61 million at the time. The property sold for $51 million in 2013, MSCI data shows.
Loss in value
The loss in value is another data point in the broad decimation of what many commercial properties are worth after a couple years of interest rate hikes. While local hotels have come a long way back from the initial pain of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher labor costs and weakened business travel have thinned many hoteliers' bottom lines.
Large suburban hotels near the Westin Chicago North Shore that historically relied on busi -
ness tied to nearby corporations have been especially pinched by the rise of remote work and virtual meetings in the wake of the public health crisis. Less than 3 miles east of the Westin, the highly renovated Hyatt Regency Deerfield was sold last fall for under $72,000 per room, or about half of the seller's total investment in the property.
Patel said Amin had been eyeing the Wheeling Westin as a potential acquisition a couple of years ago before striking a deal with AVR in recent weeks.
Vinayaka is planning a major renovation of the property including updates to all the rooms and an overhaul of its banquet space, though Patel said the estimated cost is still not clear.
"It's in a very good location.
Out of all of the (hotels) in the area, it's the one that performs the best," Patel said of the Westin, which was built in 2006 with the help of $24 million in bond proceeds from the village of Wheeling. "Even though it's a little tired (today), it does well. We believe that this property will be able to continue to grow."
The Amin venture that bought the hotel financed the deal with a $24.5 million loan from Chesterfield, Mo.-based Reinsurance Group of America, according to Cook County property records.
The Westin Chicago North Shore is near the border of Lake County, home to many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that generate a portion of the hotel's event busi -
ness, according to Patel. The property includes 35,000 square feet of meeting and event space, including a 14,825-square-foot ballroom, according to real estate information company CoStar Group.
Hotels in Lake County averaged revenue per available room of $69.66 through the first seven months of the year, according to CoStar data. That metric, which accounts for both occupancy and room rates, was up from $66 during the same period in 2023 and just above the 2019 comparable figure, though it still trails the preCOVID average by a wide margin when accounting for inflation.
It's unclear what prompted AVR to sell the property. A spokesman for the real estate
firm, led by veteran property developer and investor Allan Rose, did not respond to a request for comment.
Backing from villiage
The village of Wheeling helped back development of the Westin to raise its profile and bring new business to the suburb. When developers MidAmerica Investment & Development and Harp Group broke ground on the property in 2005, the suburb estimated it would generate $100 million in new tax revenue over a 22-year period.
The property's owners, led by New York-based Marathon Asset Management, ran into debt trouble during the great financial crisis and ultimately lost the property to foreclosure in 2011.
An Italian restaurant on the building's ground floor also shuttered in 2009, but was replaced in 2011 with Saranello's, another Italian restaurant run by Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.
Amin has gradually built a big portfolio of full-service hotels in the Chicago suburbs since breaking into the sector with the 2008 purchase of a Hampton Inn in Hoffman Estates. Vinayaka hotels include the DoubleTree Chicago and Chicago Marriott in Oak Brook, the Hyatt Regency and Sheraton in Lisle and the Chicago Marriott Suites and Hilton Rosemont near O'Hare International Airport.
Amin also owns five office properties in the Chicago area. Adam McGaughy and John Nugent in the Chicago office of Jones Lang LaSalle brokered the sale of the Westin Chicago North Shore.
Harry Caray’s most famous line is the focus of a new trademark lawsuit
the company that owns the late Chicago sportscaster’s trademarks alleges a Dallas ea tery is capitalizing on a phrase known by Cubs fans the world over: “Holy Cow!”
By Brandon Dupré
The owner of the Harry Caray brand filed a lawsuit against a restaurant in Texas for “misappropriating the goodwill” of the late Chicago sportscaster's celebrated phrase: "Holy Cow!"
The lawsuit, filed in Texas federal court last month, accuses a Dallas restaurant and its owner of trademark infringement for naming a restaurant Holy Cow, a move described in the complaint as “unlawfully taking full advantage” of the famous tagline, which the plaintiff asserts has an asset value in the millions.
The complaint alleges the de-
fendants "willfully, intentionally and unlawfully sought to create a false association with the Harry Caray restaurants, and to willfully, intentionally and unlawfully misappropriate the tremendous goodwill of Harry Caray Ltd.’s well known, if not famous, Holy Cow! mark.”
Caray, who died in 1998, was a Major League Baseball sportscaster for 53 years, including 16 seasons for the Chicago Cubs. The restaurant group bearing his name began in 1987 with the opening of Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse in River North and has since grown to include seven locations, an off-site catering company and the Chicago Sports
Museum, the complaint notes.
The "Holy Cow" phrase is used to promote the company's food and beverage offerings and appears on a raft of merchandise available at the restaurants. The lawsuit claims the Texas restaurant’s use of the trademark could dilute the value of the product, “causing a likelihood of confusion, mistake, or deception to customers.”
The suit names Adil Osamah Palwala, owner of the restaurant, as a defendant. Holy Cow Restaurant Inc., a franchiser based in New York, is also listed as a defendant and has 11 locations, according to its website, including the one in Dallas
named in the suit. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
Harry Caray Ltd. is asking the
court to issue a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent further infringement, as well as damages.
Harry Caray | ALAmY
The Westin Chicago North Shore at 601 N. Milwaukee Ave. | COStAR GROUp
Northwestern gets $55M to accelerate scientific discoveries
By Jon Asplund
Northwestern University's translational sciences arm announced on Aug. 29 it has received a large federal grant to accelerate its work in moving scientific discoveries into actual medical practice.
The $55 million, seven-year award from the National Institutes of Health is the largest research grant at Northwestern that is active right now. The NIH has been funding the Northwestern University Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute, or NUCATS, since it launched in 2008.
The process from moving discoveries to routine care is slow, complex and labor intensive. NUCATS provides scientists at its health system partners — Northwestern Medicine, Lurie Children's Hospital and its Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute, and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab — with consultative resources and expertise to accelerate how quickly transformative scientific discoveries reach patients and communities.
The institute works to reconcile "basic biology in a laboratory versus biology that happens in a clinical enterprise, working with humans, (trying) to come
up with how you cross that bridge," said Dr. Clyde Yancy, a NUCATS principal investigator and chief of cardiology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "How do you go from the science on the bench to the science in the field?"
More than just getting science tested out in the field more quickly and efficiently, the institute aims to get new developments into clinical practice when they can improve health equitably, said Dr. Richard D’Aquila, associate vice president of research and senior associate dean for clinical and translational research at Feinberg. It is looking at how much pure science is actually improving human health, he said.
The job is both about working with a diverse cross-section of clinicians and about helping new companies spin out effective medicine from Northwestern research, he said.
More than ever before, D'Aquila said, the NIH hopes translational science can find ways to move research more quickly and efficiently to clinical practice.
Part of NUCATS' strategy, Yancy said, is a "three 'I' phenomenon," looking at what truly is innovative, what is truly implementable and
how to be more inclusive.
He said inclusion is bigger than just controlling for racial or ethnic diversity, but "across the board, because patients, particularly here in Chicago, come in so many different persuasions by virtue of their geography, their language, their ethnicity, their acculturation, their age, their ableism, their LGBTQI status. There are a lot of different lanes that patients swim in here in Chicago."
Chicago's population also closely reflects the demographic makeup of the nation, D'Aquila said.
“Diversity in the biomedical workforce is more than representativeness; it is rather about excellence, diverse ideas and unique strategies that will enrich our ability to provide care for the entire population,” said Yancy, who is also vice dean for diversity and inclusion at Feinberg.
To bring the science to people, Sara Becker, Northwestern's Alice Hamilton Professor of Psychiatry, is leading implementation strategies.
The NIH's Clinical & Translational Science Awards Program was developed to support translational research.
Translational research "spans
multiple stages from bench to bedside to community to public health," she said. But in the last few years, the "NIH has recognized a need to move beyond just translational research to what they call translational science, which is the idea that any specific study should not just be advancing our knowledge of how to get from bench to bedside or to the population with one specific setting and one specific population or diagnosis, but that we should be creating research that is generalizable."
The science needs to create translatable knowledge that "transcends settings, context, populations (and) diagnoses," she said.
D'Aquila said NUCATS will provide new resources for aca -
demic innovators to better learn "what it takes for commercialization: to get capital funding, to get a licensing agreement, to understand the needs of the end user early on in developing their new products."
He said Becker's implementation science perspective can get concepts like patients' needs and commercialization concerns into the science from the beginning of research, "so that by the time it gets to be an actual commercial product, it'll work everywhere, not just the high-end tertiary medical center."
"It's not what you do, but how you do it," Yancy said. "But it's fascinating to realize that it is, in and of itself, its own discipline."
From left: Dr. Clyde Yancy, Dr. Richard D’Aquila and Sara Becker
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difficult to meet.”
Rōti is now asking for immediate attention in its Chapter 11 filing. The company listed estimated liabilities between $1 million and $10 million, with the number of creditors being anywhere between 200 and 999. Its stated estimated assets are less than $50,000.
Seamonds, who has led Rōti since February 2020, said the company is now looking for a buyer or outside investors to give it a jolt.
“In order to continue to compete effectively for a share of the public’s appetite against very large, entrenched, well-located, digitally active food brands, it is necessary for Roti to engage in a further sale or financial restructuring of its lease and contract obligations, including the possibility of infusing significant new capital through equity, debt, or a sale, or some combination of these that Roti hopes to achieve through these chapter 11 cases,” Seamonds wrote.
Rōti asked the court to authorize an auction for Oct. 21 and a sale hearing for Oct. 22.
Seamonds said Rōti intends to “transition into chapter 11 without disrupting their business operations,” and the company does not appear to have abruptly altered operations in the days since it made the initial filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The company currently employs 37 salaried employees, 65 full-time hourly employees and 125 parttime hourly employees. Seamonds said “it is of critical importance that the (restaurants) maintain their workforce through the conclusion of this process.”
Representatives for Rōti did not respond to Crain’s requests for comment. In a statement to Restaurant Business magazine, which first reported the filing, Seamonds wrote, “After careful consideration, filing for bankruptcy was the best way to address our challenges, including financial performance, higher costs, mixed location performance and tough market conditions.”
In the court documents, Seamonds said Rōti tapped an investment banker to seek potential buyers earlier this year. Thirty-two possible buyers “executed confidentiality agreements in order to conduct diligence,” he wrote. “However, no firm contracts or reasonable capital sources emerged.”
Meanwhile, he said Rōti is in ongoing discussions with a “national restaurant company” to acquire eight of its locations. “At this writing we believe there remains a possibility that they will bid to become a stalking horse bidder for that group of restaurants,” Seamonds wrote. Rōti currently operates 19 restaurants, with six in the Washington, D.C., area; three in Minnesota and the rest in Illinois. Its headquarters are in River North. Prior to the pandemic, the company had footprints in New York, Dallas and Houston, though those have since closed. Founded in 2006, Rōti built its business largely on the lunch rush, and the Mediterranean chain is just the latest to find itself restructuring.
Chicago’s big bet on quantum computing is already paying off
By John Pletz
An ecosystem of quantum companies already has emerged in Chicago focused on developing various parts of a computing technology that’s expected to solve large and complex problems at speeds that are now nearly impossible to imagine.
Drawn by universities and national labs, these companies form a nucleus of privatesector quantum talent — and demonstrate that the job-creating opportunity Chicago sees in this technology is already bearing fruit.
EeroQ
This company is designing processors, or qubits, for quantum computers, using technology developed at Michigan State University that involves using liquid helium as well as traditional chip-making technologies.
EeroQ, co-founded by Nick Farina, operates from a former locomotive-headlight factory called The Terminal in Humboldt Park and has 15 employees.
The startup has raised $13.5 million and has produced prototype chips with a contract manufacturer. It hopes to have a quantum-computer offering in a cloud environment in 18 to 24 months.
The 8-year-old company moved to Chicago in 2022.
“Where is best place to build a quantum computer?” Farina says of the decision. “It came down to talent: the quality and cost of living. The universities and national labs are here. People see themselves buying a house here more quickly than in New York and California.”
Infleqtion
A team of 15 makes software that will allow users to write algorithms and other applications for quantum computers.
It’s part of Boulder, Colo.-based Infleqtion, which is developing a quantum computer. The software group grew from a startup called Super.tech, founded by a University of Chicago student and faculty member.
Infleqtion has about a dozen customers each in software and hardware, and about 20 customers.” There’s a need for software to make hardware usable,” says Pranav Gokhale, one of the co-founders of Super. tech, who earned a doctorate in quantum computing from the University of Chicago. He likens quantum to where artificial-intelligence chips were 10 years ago, when Nvidia founder Jensen Hwuang “was knocking on the doors of universities.”
MemQ
Another startup with University of Chicago roots, MemQ is developing memory and networking technology for quantum computers and sensors.
The company, which also came through
U of C’s Duality startup accelerator and Argonne National Laboratory’s Chain Reactions Innovation program, started in 2002 and has six employees.
“I wasn’t planning on staying in Chicago when I came,” says co-founder Manish Singh, who came to UChicago for quantum research from chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. “My goal was to get a Ph.D. and go back to TSMC and start my own research.
“It’s a very ripe ecosystem. We have three internationally known schools for quantum in U of C, Northwestern and (the University of Illinois). A lot of factors are coming together,” he said, pointing to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s plans to set up a benchmarking program in Chicago to prove out new quantum technologies for the federal government.
PsiQuantum
The Silicon Valley company is the first tenant at the 160-acre Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park at the former U.S. Steel South Works site on the Far South Side, where it plans to build and operate the first large-scale quantum computer in the U.S.
Based in Palo Alto, Calif., PsiQuantum chose Chicago over 15 other states for the project. The company has raised more than $700 million and has 330 employees. It plans to hire 150 workers for the Chicago site within five years.
PsiQuantum is one of several companies, including Google and IBM, that have competing approaches to deliver a quantum computer that’s ready for commercial use.
The company has about a dozen Fortune 500 companies in industries such as energy, pharmaceuticals, materials and financial services that have signed up as customers to rent time on the machine, much like a traditional supercomputer.
“They are going for big-swing problems that haven’t been touched yet,” says PsiQuantum spokesman Alex Mack. “No one wants to be left behind. They’re working with us years ahead of the computers coming online because the algorithms that will be needed haven’t been written yet.”
QBraid
This company is building a software platform to write code that will work across various quantum computing platforms.
QBraid came to Chicago to join the Duality quantum accelerator at the University of Chicago and has 11 employees.
“We were looking for a big city to set up operations, and Chicago fit perfectly,” says co-founder Kanav Setia, who launched QBraid after getting a doctorate in physics from Dartmouth College. “Chicago has a lot of momentum. The thing that remains to be seen is whether we can keep that momentum going.”
providing an early glimpse at the technology and how it might be used in a real-world setting well beyond the laboratory.
For one: Unisys, a technology services company, is using a type of quantum computing to help logistics customers tackle the problem of loading cargo onto aircraft.
“The bottom of an airplane is not rectangular — it’s a weird curved shape,” says CEO Peter Altabef. “How do you get rectangular boxes and optimize those containers? There are just so many variables. And quantum computing handles multiple, simultaneous variables much better than classical computers.”
Solving that particular Jenga puzzle to absolute perfection would take about seven years using traditional computers, Altabef reckons. With the power of a quantum computer — or quantum annealing, as techies call it — “you can get that optimization done in less than seven seconds. So all of a sudden, something that has never been possible before is possible.”
If optimizing cargo loading doesn’t sound complicated enough to merit harnessing a quantum computer to get the job done, consider that there are variables beyond the limits of physical space.
“It’s not just about optimizing the space in the cargo hold,” Altabef says. “It’s about optimizing the load and unload. One of the largest costs to an airline is fuel costs waiting for that aircraft to take off. If you can save minutes in terms of how long it takes to load, then you can save . . . millions of dollars.”
The air-cargo example is just one illustration of how an abstract technology idea applied to something mundane could produce very real bottom-line results for companies large and small. That’s why so many are lining up to get a chance to put their problems to the test with the quantum computers now under development — including the machines being visualized for South Works.
What is quantum computing?
As the name implies, this new type of computing draws on the concepts of quantum mechanics in physics. Tiny particles of matter or specialized circuits can effectively be in multiple states at once. Instead of storing information as 1s or 0s, as traditional computers do, quantum machines store bits of data in a quantum superposition, which is neither 0 nor 1.
If that explanation strikes you as clear as mud, know this: The result is computers that are uniquely suited to process more data and tackle more complicated problems than current machines. What quantum computers are really good at is tackling multiple problems with lots of everchanging variables.
“Optimizing logistics is about the most boring thing you can think of, but it’s supremely important,” says Paul Stimers, a partner in Washington, D.C., at law firm Holland & Knight who advises tech companies and industry associations. “Logistics is how you win wars. . . .We see this in Ukraine. The economic side is also huge. If you told Amazon they could save 1% off their logistics, that’s a big number. And that translates into environmental impact.”
David Awschalom, a University of Chicago professor who heads up the Chicago Quantum Exchange research consortium that includes universities and more than a dozen large corporations, offers another example.
“Commercial aircraft have millions of parts,” he says. “Instead of working by trial and error to develop an efficient assembly plan, imagine having that plan, and know-
ing it is the best plan, on day one. From managing the energy grid to scheduling package deliveries, quantum-driven optimization is likely to have a significant impact on society.”
Another application is fertilizer development, says Pranav Gokhale who leads a team of 15 techies in Chicago developing software for quantum computing company Infleqtion. “Fertilizer accounts for 2% of global energy production,” he says. “If we could simulate molecules with a computer, we could do development much more efficiently.”
Other uses for quantum include drug discovery, materials science for everything from batteries to aerospace, as well as financial markets and data encryption.
Financial services companies Morningstar and JPMorgan Chase, pharmaceutical makers Boehringer Ingelheim and CSL Behring, and manufacturers such as Mitsubishi Chemical are exploring uses for the technology.
Companies are beginning to develop algorithms that will be able to take advantage of the new capabilities presented by quantum computers. The National Institute of Standards & Technology recently published three encryption algorithms designed to keep data secure from quantum computers.
“We’re still in day one,” Stimers says. “It’s an extremely early time. We’re only just beginning to have commercially viable uses of quantum computing.”
Quantum annealing, for example, is an early, narrow slice of quantum technology well suited to particular problems such as optimization. The game-changer will be more general-purpose quantum computers that can be used to tackle a range of problems in tandem with traditional computers.
Companies such as Google, IBM, PsiQuantum and Infleqtion have developed prototypes of such machines, but a “utility” or commercial-scale quantum computer hasn’t been built yet. A key challenge is in developing stable qubits to process quantum information and scale them in sufficient quantity to create machines more powerful than traditional computers. Chicago’s role
PsiQuantum hopes to build the first large-scale quantum computer in the United States at the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park on the 160-acre former South Works site along Lake Michigan on the Far South Side. It will take a couple of years to build out the large cryogenic facility necessary to provide the super-cold temperatures that are required for most quantum computers.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency also is preparing for the day when quantum gets real. One of the federal government’s top agencies in developing new technologies, DARPA plans to set up a proving ground at the park to test the quantum technologies being developed by PsiQuantum and others. The agency intends to spend up to $140 million as part of its quantum-benchmarking program.
“You’re going to have to build some really expensive prototypes to actually kick the tires and find out if these technologies work, and you’re going to have to build a lot of equipment and hire a small army of people to really vet these technologies,” Joe Altepeter, who leads the benchmarking program, said in July when announcing the proving ground.
“We’re not interested in finding out if it just sounds plausible that these things might work. We want to prove to ourselves before you build the big one, we have confidence that you could build it, it will work as designed when you build it, that it really is going to be a critical industry tool.”
PsiQuantum builds quantum chip wafers, tests production cryogenic cabinets and develops algorithms to deploy on quantum computer systems. pSIQUANtUm
passenger terminal.’ ”
Many people have pointed to The Alliance, a cargo-focused airport in Fort Worth, Texas, that was developed by Ross Perot Jr., as the more likely path to success for Peotone. It’s also one of the few examples of a successful privately funded airport.
“It’s private-sector initiative that took a gamble that this could work, and it worked spectacularly,” says Poole, a privatization advocate. “The South Suburban Airport has been mostly a government-led ‘if you build it they will come’ guess. There may well be a case (for Peotone). It’s much more of a gamble than Ross Perot Jr. took in starting Alliance.”
A Peotone airport has long been seen as a huge economic development opportunity in the south suburbs and Will County. A recent study by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, a think tank with ties to organized labor, predicted that building a new airport would create 6,300 jobs and generate approximately $24 million each year in economic activity, along with $2 million a year in state and local tax revenue.
What will they build?
drawing board for more than 30 years and has had multiple incarnations. Along the way, the state has acquired 4,550 acres of land around Bult Field, a small airport that serves private aircraft. It was first proposed as a way to deal with airspace in Chicago that was among the most crowded in the nation, leading to legendary flight delays. A massive expansion and reconfiguration of runways at O’Hare solved many of those problems, along with a move toward bigger jets.
Still, Chicago has long viewed the Peotone idea as an unnecessary and unwelcome competitor to Midway and O’Hare airports, questioning its viability in an aviation industry that has continued to consolidate.
“I don’t see that impacting our market,” Jamie Rhee, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation, says of the proposed airport in Peotone.
MANSIONS
From page 3
forsaking high-tax Chicago and Illinois, consider this: Morris Silverman and Lori Komisar, the sellers asking $18 million in Winnetka, are merely downsizing to a smaller home in the North Shore now that their kids are grown, according to Sharon Friedman, an @ properties Christie’s International Real Estate agent who’s representing the property alongside Courtney Cook of the same brokerage. In at least two other cases, the homeowners have died and their heirs are selling the property, and in two more, the sellers told Crain’s they have other homes, in Wisconsin and Michigan, respectively, close to family members they want to be near.
Thus, in at least five of the nine offerings, the sellers are not part of an exodus from Illinois.
Personal circumstances
Friedman attributes the rush of big-dollar listings to a confluence of personal circumstances. “I think
WAREHOUSE
From page 3
Konowitch said in a statement released by Colliers, which brokered the sale of Woodridge Commerce Center. Konowitch said in the statement that the sellers grew the properties’ net operating income by 46% during their relatively short ownership tenure. Woodridge Commerce Center caters to so-called “shallow bay” warehouse users, typically busi-
The state’s request for qualifications lays out the scope of an airport project that would include:
A 9,500-foot runway, which would
The state already has approved $162 million in funding to build an interchange on Interstate 57 that would serve the airport. The state must still acquire about 400 acres of property before the airport can be built.
a lot of these sellers are just in a downsizing part of life,” she said. “They don’t need the big house anymore. I know my sellers don’t.”
It’s also true that homeowners with high net worth may not feel locked into their present homes by a low pre-2022 mortgage rate, which is a key factor that has kept middle-class inventory low.
In Winnetka, Silverman and Komisar are selling a 20-room mansion built in 2005 on about 1.3 acres, with about 100 feet of rocky Lake Michigan shoreline. Set off from Sheridan Road behind iron gates, the house has four living levels and on the lakefront side are a pool, outdoor kitchen and terraces, both on the table land and on terraces stepping down the bluff. Stairs and a tram drop down to the lowest terrace, just above the water where “you have a magnificent view out to the lake or back up to the house,” Friedman said.
The mansion’s interior has lake views from nearly every room, she said. “For a 15,000-squarefoot house, it doesn’t feel big and cold like some of them,” Friedman said. “They have a lot of wood and
nesses that occupy small spaces within a larger industrial building. Those are far different properties from the massive distribution centers leased by one or a small handful of big corporate users like Amazon.
Developers have built more of the latter property type in recent years, leaving less competition for shallow bay industrial properties. That’s partly why Unilev and Palladius were able to sell the Woodridge complex for 24% more than the 2021 sale price.
be about double the existing runway at the airport.
A passenger terminal big enough to accommodate passenger screening, baggage handling, concession areas, waiting areas and office space.
An air cargo area with space for on-site intermodal, warehousing and logistics operations.
Developers will have about a year to submit responses that demonstrate their qualifications to handle building the project. The state would then issue a request for proposals in late 2025.
The idea for a third airport to serve Chicago has been on the
(finishes) that make it feel warm and comfortable.”
The agents did not provide interior photos of the home, so all we can go on is Friedman’s description. She said the front door and some nearby windows are Tiffany originals custom-made for the house, a domed ceiling in a casual
“This success is a testament to our strategy of acquiring welllocated, multi-tenant, shallow bay industrial assets as well as our team’s ability to execute our business plan,” Konowitch said in the statement.
Unilev still owns about a dozen industrial properties across the Chicago suburbs. The firm owns and manages a portfolio of more than 7 million square feet across multiple commercial property types, according to its website.
Borkowski, an executive at
dining area of the kitchen is covered in tile in a style inspired by the work of Marc Chagall, and a golf simulator room is located in the basement.
“Everything was done to look exquisite,” Friedman said.
The couple put the property on a private, agents-only network
Chicago-based industrial real estate firm Midwest Warehouse, did not respond to a request for comment.
The vacancy rate for Chicagoarea industrial property was just under 4.9% midway through the year, slightly higher than the alltime low of 4.5% set in late 2022, according to Colliers. The brokerage’s midyear report showed the share of available space is an even smaller 2.1% in the Interstate 55 corridor submarket, which includes the Woodridge property.
Supporters of the project are betting on the massive increase in warehousing and intermodal facilities in the south suburbs as well as continued population growth. In its request for qualifications, the state notes that fastgrowing Will County is forecast to nearly double its population to 1.2 million people by 2040.
“There are strong signs of developer interest,” Schwieterman says. “Now the rubber will hit the road.”
last month, Friedman told Crain’s, confirming a report in the Chicago Tribune.
Morris Silverman bought the site in 2003 for $5.78 million, according to the Cook County clerk and the listing agents. He demolished the existing home on the site and built new, Friedman said.
The home is about 1.5 miles north on Winnetka’s lakefront from the site where financier Justin Ishbia is building a megamansion to the tune of $77.8 million, and about a mile north of the highest-priced home in the Chicago area at the moment, a Winnetka mansion that listed last month for $35 million.
Along with the nine new listings at $10 million and up, there are at least five others that were already on the market before this summer’s rush. The longest-running of them is Michael Jordan’s Highland Park mansion, which has been for sale since February 2012. The asking price has been about $14.86 million since 2015.
There may be others, listed privately and not yet unearthed by the press.
Still, industrial property sales are down this year in the Chicago area as many prospective buyers wait for interest rates to start inching down. Local deal volume during the first six months of the year totaled $1.3 billion, down 24% from the same period in 2023, according to research firm MSCI Real Assets.
Colliers brokers Jeff Devine, Steve Disse and Tyler Ziebel marketed Woodridge Commerce Center on behalf of Unilev and Palladius.
A Peotone airport has long been seen as a huge economic development opportunity in the south suburbs and Will County. GEttY ImAGES
DAVID WARD
Illinois gets praise for cannabis equity efforts, but stakeholders still working on system’s flaws
By Dilpreet Raju, Capitol News Illinois
Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.
Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.
Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.
As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.
Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.
Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees –those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs – can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.
Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois in July that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.
“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.
No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.
It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However – even as more dispensaries open – the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed.
Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.
Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.
“It's about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn't we want all the patients – which the (adult-use) program was initially built around –why wouldn't we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”
Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1 percent tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40 percent on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.
While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.
The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.
But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.
“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they're putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”
Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”
This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.
Olson said the state’s attempts to
provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.
“It's like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it's pretty black and white.”
Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.
“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it's a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That's all it is,” he said.
State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.
For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
Medical access still limited
The state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.
Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.
Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.
While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses
since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.
But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.
Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.
“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said.
“It's something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”
Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.
“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said.
“We also think it's good for our social equity dispensaries, as they're opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”
Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.
“Illinois is failing the state's 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
(312) 649-5200 or editor@chicagobusiness.com
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