Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to open its first Walmart Express store on Chicago’s South Side.
The 10,000-square-foot store is set to open this summer in the Chatham Market on 83rd Street, said a source familiar with the plans. Get the full story »
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Roundy’s has deal for 3 Chicago area stores
Crain’s Chicago Business | Milwaukee-based supermarket chain Roundy’s has signed deals to bring three of its upscale Mariano’s stores to Chicago. They will be in the West Loop, Uptown and Palatine. The Palatine outlet is scheduled to open next year.
Bobby Jenks selling Hinsdale house for $899K
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Former Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Bobby Jenks, who now throws for the Boston Red Sox, has listed his four-bedroom, 3,203-square-foot house in Hinsdale for $899,000.
Jenks, who turns 30 on Monday, is the latest former Sox to list a home in Hinsdale. As Elite Street first reported last month, fellow former reliever Scott Linebrink is asking $825,000 for his 11-room house in Hinsdale. Get the full story »
First Midwest plans downtown facility
First Midwest Bank, which has grown into one of the area’s biggest banks without a presence in downtown Chicago, confirmed that it plans to set up shop for the first time in the city’s central business district.
The bank told the Tribune that it plans to open an office in a LaSalle Street building in the Loop in early April. It’s not divulging the address until a lease for the property, which has 3,500 to 4,000 square feet, is signed, which should occur “shortly,” a bank spokesman said. The office will handle commercial banking, cash management and trust services, he said. Get the full story »
AFL-CIO Housing Trust to invest in Randolph Tower
The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust said on Monday it is investing $20 million to help finance the redevelopment of a landmark downtown building.
The trust said it purchased $20 million of taxable bonds as part of the financing package for the $148.2 million redevelopment of the Randolph Tower, a Gothic Revival-style skyscraper in the West Loop. Get the full story »
High-end home sales rise in major markets
After four straight years of declines, sales of million-dollar homes and condos rose last year in all 20 major metro areas, according to DataQuick Information Systems. On average, these cities saw an 18.6 percent jump in high-end home sales. Get the full story »
Mortgage rates in U.S. fall for third week
Freddie Mac's corporate offices in McLean, Va. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, FILE)
Mortgage rates eased again last week, with long-term rates continuing their decline from the current-year high set three weeks ago, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey.
Rates had seen a recent rise, hitting their highest level since April last month. They had slumped most of last year as Treasurys had declined amid economic uncertainty. The rates generally track the yields, which move inversely to Treasury prices.
Freddie Chief Economist Frank Nothaft cautioned, “housing demand still remains weak,” noting that new home sales in January neared the lowest levels since at least 1964, when data collection began, according to the Census Bureau. Get the full story »
Treasury backs HAMP amid GOP calls to kill it
The Obama administration vigorously defended its Home Affordable Modification Program Wednesday, which faces sharp criticism by Republican lawmakers who want it axed.
Repeatedly saying that the housing market remains fragile, Treasury Department officials touted the fact that while the 2-year-old program is not meeting its initially much-publicized — and now unrealistic — goal of saving 3 million to 4 million families from foreclosure, the 25,000 to 30,000 families each month who are receiving permanent loan modifications is cause for it to continue. Get the full story »
AT&T plans flagship store in Arlington Heights
From The Daily Herald | AT&T, which has its Midwest headquarters in Hoffman Estates, is expected to open a new flagship store for wireless products in Arlington Heights this summer or fall.
HSBC halts U.S. foreclosures pending review
HSBC Holdings PLC has suspended its foreclosure proceedings in the U.S. after a regulatory letter noted “certain deficiencies” in its processes.
The London-based bank became the latest to disclose that investigations by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency into foreclosure practices will likely result in fines and costly changes to the way it runs its mortgage business. Get the full story »
General Growth to sell malls, raise rents, CEO says
The new chief executive of General Growth Properties Inc. said the company plans to sell some malls, cut debt and expenses and raise occupancy rates and some rents to boost income and put its bankruptcy behind it.
Sandeep Mathrani, who has been the CEO of the No. 2 U.S. mall owner for about 40 days, said Tuesday that he expects to reduce the number of malls the company owns to 150 from 169. It plans to sell the 19 other malls, which contribute a minimal amount to its income. The company had more than 200 malls before it filed for bankruptcy in April 2009. Get the full story »
Sportscaster Kashul sticks with Naperville
Elite Street | By Bob Goldsborough | In the end, veteran sportscaster Steve Kashul couldn’t bear to leave Naperville.
In 2009, Kashul, who does Chicago Bulls broadcasts on WMVP-AM and hosts a weekly golf show on Comcast SportsNet Chicago, told Elite Street that while he loved Naperville — hometown of his wife, Cindy — he wanted to move closer to his full-time job as membership director for the private Kemper Lakes Golf Club in Kildeer. Get the full story »
Geithner: Mortgage costs to rise with reform
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday that future mortgage costs likely will be “modestly higher” after reforms are completed to the national housing finance system. Get the full story »
Allstate sues Credit Suisse over mortgage debt
Allstate Corp. on Monday sued Credit Suisse Group AG, accusing the Swiss bank of causing losses by hiding the risks on $232 million of mortgage securities it bought. Get the full story »
Magazine: Chicago ‘tops’ for corp. investment
Corporate expansion last year “from Groupon to U.S. Steel” has landed Chicago as the top metro area for corporate investment by Site Selection magazine, World Business Chicago said today. Get the full story »
