Winners of the 33rd Annual Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards Announced
A unique and ambitious office building project known as 800 Fulton won Deal of the Year at the annual Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards on Thursday, May 13, a virtual event that reflected on the difficulties of the past year and hope for better days to come
The 33 rd Annual Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards is expected to raise more than $650,000 for the Food Depository’s mission to end hunger in Chicago and throughout Cook County. This year’s event was focused on celebrating diverse leaders and projects of community impact, including developer Leon Walker, who was honored with the first ever Game Changer Award.
Walker is renowned for projects that have helped to invigorate communities on Chicago’s South Side by expanding access to jobs, food and healthcare. The Game Changer Award, presented by Associated Bank, honors a commercial real estate professional whose innovative work uplifts communities.
“The past year has been so incredibly difficult for hundreds of thousands of our neighbors in Cook County facing hunger, particularly those in lower-income communities of color,” said Kate Maehr, the Food Depository’s executive director and CEO. “We are so grateful for our partners in the commercial real estate industry who are helping us to meet the need in the ongoing crisis.”
The awards event – considered to be the top awards event for those in Chicago’s commercial real estate industry – is also the largest annual fundraiser for the Food Depository. Since the event began in 1989, it has raised more than $22 million.
A Blue Ribbon Panel presented awards to recognize the industry’s best architects, brokers, contractors, design professionals, developers, project managers, and property representatives of 2020. The winners were chosen by a group of industry professionals.
The Impact of the Year award – another new addition for 2021 – was awarded to BlueCross BlueShield Illinois Morgan Park Solution Center, a collaboration among Health Care Service Corporation, Pepper Construction, JLL, DL3 Realty, Brown & Momen, zpd+a Architects and DLA Piper
Mariah DiGrino of DLA Piper chaired the Blue Ribbon Panel, which is made up of former event chairs, past award winners, representatives from Chicago-area real estate associations and several at-large members of the Chicago real estate community who are appointed on an annual, rotating basis. Tom Jaros of Levenfeld Pearlstein served as Event Chair and Emily Marquardt of the Telos Group was Vice Chair.
The event was presented by Associated Bank and the media sponsor was Crain’s Chicago Business. Clayco, CRG and Lamar Johnson Collaborative sponsored the virtual reception. The Telos Group sponsored the Brown Bag Challenge. Additional sponsors included JLL and Ventas. Corey McPherrin of Fox 32 Chicago served as master of ceremonies
Here are the winners of the 33rd Annual Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards (read the full list here):
Developer of the Year – Chicago
- Riverside Investment & Development
Development of the Year - Commercial
-Bank of America Tower - 110 North Wacker (Riverside Investment & Development, Goettsch Partners, Inc., Clark Construction Group, The Howard Hughes Corporation)