Welcome To The Real Finds Blog: Commercial Real Estate Insights for Chicago and the Midwest
Welcome to The Real Finds Blog, your daily briefing on commercial real estate trends across Chicagoland and the Midwest. Published by Gordon Lamphere, a fourth-generation commercial real estate broker at Van Vlissingen & Co., this blog delivers sharp, actionable insights for CRE professionals navigating a changing market. Every article connects macro trends—interest rates, automation, supply chains, policy shifts—to local real estate strategy across high-demand submarkets, including:
- Downtown Chicago – office space, adaptive reuse, capital markets
- Elk Grove & O’Hare – industrial leasing, logistics infrastructure
- Kenosha & SE Wisconsin – warehouse development and distribution hubs
- Oak Brook & Schaumburg – suburban office leasing and reinvestment
- Naperville & the I-88 Corridor – flex space, R&D, life sciences
- Bolingbrook & the I-55 Corridor – fulfillment centers and industrial site selection
- Lake, DuPage, Will, Kane, and McHenry Counties – land use, entitlements, development opportunities, and tenant migration
From daily blog posts to in-depth strategy guides and transcribed podcast interviews, Real Finds turns global uncertainty into hyper-local market intelligence for investors, landlords, tenants, developers, and brokers New posts are published every weekday.
Investing In Data Center Development With Anita Verma-Lallian – RFP 86
Data centers have quietly become one of the most strategically important asset classes in commercial real estate. They sit at...
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What Socializing Really Means in Knowledge Work & Does It Matter?
In knowledge work, socializing is often mislabeled. It is framed as culture, camaraderie, or a soft benefit layered on top...
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Is Mass Timber Is the Future of Commercial Buildings with Justin Den Herder – RFP 85
Mass timber has moved from architectural eye candy to a serious contender in commercial development. On this episode of The...
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Zurich Buys Live Nation’s Fulton Market Office for 18 Million Dollars
Zurich North America has deepened its investment footprint in Chicago's Office Market with its reported 18 million dollar acquisition of...
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Rivian’s Northbrook Expansion: How a New Sales & Service Center Could Reshape Local Commercial Real Estate
Rivian’s plan to open a new sales and service center in Northbrook marks another strategic step in the rise of...
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How Could Waymo Reshape Chicago’s Commercial Real Estate Market?
Waymo’s effort to bring autonomous robotaxis to Illinois has prompted statewide debate about safety, liability, and legislative authority. But beneath...
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Glenview’s Caremark Towers Office To Industrial Conversion Signals a Structural Market Shift
The planned redevelopment of the Caremark Towers at 2211 Sanders Road is more than another distressed-office repositioning. It’s an empirical case...
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The Office Crisis & Why Work Feels Broken With Cali Williams Yost – RFP 84
For nearly five years, boardrooms across America have been stuck in the same argument: How do we get people back...
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Garage Condos Are Coming to Lake Zurich And They Could Reshape The Market
Lake Zurich’s approval of a 21-acre luxury “garage condo” campus at Rand Road and Telser Road (near 905 Rand Rd,...
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What a $700 Million Refinancing on Wacker Drive Really Signals for the Chicago Office Market
In a downtown office market still defined by uncertainty, the news that a joint venture is lining up a $700...
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The Rise Of Industrial Outdoor Storage (IOS) As An Asset Class?
Why Industrial Outdoor Storage Is Surging In Chicago The Rise Of IOS As A Core Industrial Asset Class Industrial outdoor...
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What’s Fueling Industrial Outdoor Storage Deals With Andrew Wiesemann – RFP 83
The Real Finds Podcast: Why Industrial Outdoor Storage Is Becoming the Most Misunderstood Opportunity in Commercial Real Estate Every so...
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Is Fear Driving Your Return To Office Strategy
Look around, and it is clear that the conversation about returning to the office is no longer about public health....
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As Cook County’s Property Taxes Rise 16% So Do Doom Loop Fears
How Can Investors & Occupiers Protect Themselves From Cook County's Rising Property Taxes? Chicago’s commercial and residential property markets just...
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Making a Workspace for a Gen Z Workforce: What Modern Companies Need to Know
No generation has entered the workforce with more expectations, more digital fluency, or more influence than Gen Z. Born roughly...
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How To Right-Size Your Office Without Crushing Culture With Prof. Alana Dunoff – RFP 82
What Kindergarten Can Teach Us About Office Design When you think about the modern workplace, kindergarten probably isn’t the first...
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The Split in Chicagoland’s Industrial Market: Why Small-Bay Is Tight and Big-Box Is Soft
Over the last decade, Chicago has built more industrial space than almost any metro in the country. Developers lined I-55,...
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The Midwest Rebalance: Industrial Winners and Losers With Xander Snyder – RFP 81
When the industrial market peaked in 2022, nearly 800 million square feet of space was under construction across the U.S.—the...
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