Holly Duran Real Estate Partners Moves To Landmark CBOT Building

Holly Duran Real Estate Partners LLC (HDREP) recently relocated to the landmark Chicago Board of Trading Building, vacating their longtime home in the CME Center after 35 years. HDREP has been the global real estate advisor to CME Group for over three decades and has a long business history with both buildings.

“This is a logical move for us and a reaffirmation of our commitment to the financial services community,” said Holly Duran, principal of the boutique firm. HDREP exclusively represents commercial tenants and specializes in negotiating office space, operations and data center transactions for entities associated with the financial markets, including exchanges, clearing organizations, brokerage, legal and trading firms, and financial technology companies. “We’re very excited to operate out of this iconic building that blends the rich history of Chicago and its markets with great modern amenities,” Duran said.

HDREP was involved in the sale of the historic property in 2012. The Chicago Board of Trade Building recently underwent an extensive redevelopment with a focus on state-of-the-art communications and technologies capabilities, along with other amenities. As one of the last independent boutiques providing commercial real estate advisory services in Chicago, HDREP was recently approached for acquisition but chose to maintain its independence and its focus on tenant-only representation.

The move is part of a new wave of investment in the South Loop, attributed in part to the area’s wealth of students and an abundance of development opportunities. Student housing in the South Loop alone accounts for 30 percent of all accommodations across the entire Chicago metropolitan area. Over 58,000 students attend school in the South Loop, representing an economic impact of $3.2 billion every year. Duran predicts that, due to the current economic cycle, further compressed cap rates resulting in higher sales prices in the near future should continue to produce future investment.

“It is an exciting time to be a part of the transition taking place in the South Loop,” Jeff Newcom, a partner at the firm, said. “My family effectively grew up on the trading floors, where true entrepreneurship was born in Chicago dating back to its very founding in 1848. The city has seen the birth of a whole new ecosystem of startups, technology firms and entrepreneurs across different industries evolve from the open outcry trading floor, and we’ve been thrilled to partner strategically with our clients to help them forge new opportunities in the changing marketplace.”

In addition to CME Group, HDREP’s global financial services clients include OCC, Optiver US, ED&F Man Capital Markets Inc., Rosenthal Collins Group, Geneva Trading and COFCO Americas, along with Chicago-based legal and family offices Sperling & Slater, P.C., Goldberg Kohn and Levy Family Partners.

Source: rejournals.com