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 (Crain’s) — A former chemist who helped launch NutraSweet has left a high-ranking post at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to run a start-up aiming to be Cabela’s for kids.
Bill Colaianni is CEO of Wonder LLC, which plans to open its first store in November in a 135,000-square-foot former Great Indoors store at Deerbrook Mall in north suburban Deerfield.
Bill Colaianni, left, and Shane Christensen in the site leased for the first store. Photo by Stephen J. Serio
The store, Wonder!, is to ...
 (Crain’s) — A former head of operations for Zeller Realty Group and a longtime finance executive with Sears Roebuck & Co. are cutting their teeth as vulture investors by taking over a failed senior condominium project in Wilmette.
Reuben Warshawsky, left, and David E. Rosen Unlike many others looking to capitalize on the real estate market’s collapse, the two men, Reuben Warshawsky and David E. Rosen, managed to buy a property just months after teaming up. The two brought in an ...
 (Crain’s) — Friends made bets last year after Jim Dieter said he was retiring.
“‘You’re not going to stay retired for more than a month,’” the former CB Richard Ellis broker recalls people saying.
Jim Dieter It turned out to be two.
Mr. Dieter, 62, is to join Cushman & Wakefield Inc. on Feb. 1 as executive vice-president of national industrial brokerage services. He’ll be based in Chicago, the second-largest industrial market in the country, and will report to John C. ...
(Crain’s) — Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. has hooked a big fish out of the small pond of Indianapolis to lead its fledgling industrial investment sales practice, part of a nationwide effort to bolster its ranks in an area where it lags far behind its rivals.
John E. Huguenard John E. Huguenard joined Jones Lang last week as managing director in the firm’s capital markets group, where his task is to expand the company’s business selling factories and warehouses.
Mr. Huguenard, 47, ...
 (Crain’s) — Steve Grimes’ introduction to the real estate business came in 1994, on his first day at Deloitte & Touche LLP.
Steve Grimes
The young auditor was pulled out of orientation and sent off to the Sears Tower, where he joined a team working on restructuring $850 million in debt on the landmark skyscraper. He didn’t come home that night — the first of many all-nighters over the next several months.
“I remember calling my fiancée at the time and saying, ‘What in ...
 (Crain’s) — The judge who took away control of the Block 37 retail project from developer Joseph Freed & Associates LLC has spent most of her seven-year judicial career hearing much more mundane matters.
In one of the biggest rulings in a commercial real estate foreclosure case in more than a decade, Cook County Circuit Judge Margaret A. Brennan last month granted lender Bank of America Corp.’s motion for a receiver to oversee the development at State and Randolph streets.
Judge ...
 Douglas Hirsh, who married into a prominent banking family, bought his first piece of land two years ago with his late father-in-law. Now he's looking to raise a $10-million fund to buy more and drives Downstate in his Acura to scout property.
 (Crain’s) — A General Growth executive who led the mall owner’s expansion into Brazil and Turkey is now leading an Israeli joint venture's effort to buy U.S. shopping centers at a discount.
Alexander Berman
Alexander Berman, a Ukraine native who moved here about 30 years ago, recently was named CEO of Elbit Plaza USA. The Northbrook investment firm is a joint venture of Elbit Imaging Ltd., an Israeli operator of shopping and entertainment centers, and Elbit affiliate Plaza Centers ...
 (Crain’s) — Looking to extend its hot streak of winning local public-sector work, Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. has hired a real estate veteran who once worked on the redevelopment of Times Square.
Karen Butler
Hiring Karen Butler as a managing director in the public institutions group is part of a continued push to win more government work for a firm whose local assignments already include the Chicago Transit Authority’s sprawling real estate holdings and the possible redevelopment of ...
 (Crain’s) — Until recently real estate's version of a bond buyer, Jeffrey Rothbart is loooking to become a vulture investor.
Jeffrey Rothbart Mr. Rothbart, a 32-year-old tax lawyer with family ties to local developer Alter Group Ltd., late last month launched Superior Street Capital LLC, where he will target distressed retail, apartment and office buildings owned in a legal structure called tenant-in-common (TIC.)
The new venture is an abrupt change in investment strategy for Mr. ...
(Crain’s) — A former McKinsey & Co. partner who worked with food industry clients hopes to land a $3-million city subsidy for his plan to provide better restaurants and produce in the Bronzeville neighborhood.
Bernard Loyd Bernard Loyd — whose five MIT degrees include a doctorate in aerospace engineering — quit his job six years ago at the consulting powerhouse to pursue his dream of a commercial development in Bronzeville. He wants to convert a vacant building into a produce ...
 (Crain’s) — A “deal junkie” from Waterton Associates LLC and a college buddy who’ll try to round up money for deals are teaming up to buy distressed apartment projects.
Adam Levine, left, and Richard Wise The venture reunites Richard Wise, who spent eight years at apartment owner Waterton, and Adam Levine, whose father, Leonard G. Levine, is a veteran of Chicago commercial real estate.
Messrs. Wise and Levine launched Deerfield-based Oak Residential Partners LLC in August. ...
 (Crain’s) — Two veterans of the Daley administration and prominent real estate firms have joined forces, heading a small commercial brokerage that’s developing a niche in disadvantaged areas, which have been particularly hard hit by the tough leasing market.
David Ariola, left, and Christopher Hill Former city planning commissioner Christopher Hill and former U.S. Equities Realty executive David Ariola teamed up earlier this year at Chicago Realty Co., whose clients range from MB ...
(Crain’s) — Real estate financier John Nikolich, who relishes competing against bigger firms, could find the frozen capital market a tougher foe as he tries to raise $75 million for a new HSA Commercial Real Estate venture seeking to buy industrial properties.
John Nikolich Mr. Nikolich’s little-known firm, Flint Creek Partners LLC, beat out 11 other companies in July to win the fundraising assignment from Chicago-based HSA.
“His shop is more David than Goliath,” ...
 (Crain’s) — Three former executives of recruiter Carlyle Group Ltd. have started a new search firm focusing on commercial real estate, as their previous company liquidates in the wake of a failed plan to reduce its reliance on the industry.
Ward Feste, from left, Larry Loubet and Jon Schultz
Ward Feste, Larry Loubet and Jon Schultz co-founded Peregrine Group LLC in mid-June. The Chicago firm will focus for now on filling openings in real estate, construction and architecture.
At ...
KINNEY'S LUXURY BOX
Jim Kinney
Age: 59
New title: Vice-president of luxury home sales, Baird & Warner.
Education: English degree from Northwestern.
Hobbies: Collects walking sticks and has a 43-foot sailboat on Monroe Harbor.
(Crain’s) — Jim Kinney, the longtime president of Rubloff Residential Properties, has jumped to Baird & Warner in the wake of Rubloff’s acquisition this month by a rival, as the competition intensifies among brokerage firms selling high-priced ...
 (Crain’s) — Real estate finance veteran Cheri Grossman now is leading acquisitions for an investment firm headed by Harry and Charles Huzenis, joining the stampeding herd of those seeking to buy distressed property.
Cheri Grossman
Ms. Grossman’s role at startup JRG Capital Partners LLC will be to find properties priced from $5 million to $100 million. Opportunities for investing in distressed assets are expected to grow in the next couple years, but given the high level of ...
(Crain’s) — Despite the dramatic slowdown in commercial real estate investment, Eastdil Secured LLC has bolstered its Chicago team by hiring a veteran suburban office building broker.
Gary Nussbaum starts work Sept. 28 at Eastdil, joining prominent broker Stephen Livaditis, whom he has known since the early 1990s, when they were both up-and-coming brokers.
Mr. Nussbaum, who turns 48 on Friday, comes to Eastdil from commercial real estate brokerage Transwestern, where he headed ...
CARLEY CAPSULE
Barbara Carley
Age: 48
Title: managing director and regional lead in investor services, Cushman & Wakefield Inc.
Education: Bachelor's degree from Valparaiso University, attended Harvard Kennedy School of Government for two years.
Past life: General manager of Sears Tower in 2004-2005.
Fast track: A Nascar and Indy car fan who road-tips to races in her motor home.
(Crain’s) — A veteran property management executive who used to run the ...
 (Crain’s) — A Detroit-area native who grew up in a home his father built has been tapped to head the Chicago operations of the newly combined Pulte Homes Inc. and Centex Corp.
Steve Atchison
Steve Atchison, 40, was named president of Illinois/Michigan for Pulte Homes last month when Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Pulte bought Centex in a $1.3-billion deal that created the nation’s biggest homebuilder.
The acquisition also makes Pulte the market leader in Chicago, based on number ...
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