Following the trend of positive industrial fundamentals in the Chicagoland area, supply-chain firm M. Block & Sons has signed a 915,645-square-foot lease at 18801 Oak Park Ave. in Tinley Park, Ill. Newmark Knight Frank Epic represented the tenant in the lease transaction.

CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust has made a significant addition to its Chicago portfolio with the purchase of a 1.4 million-square-foot bulk warehouse and distribution center. The property is fully leased through August 2021.

According to a new report by BMO Harris Bank, the Midwest is set for a recovery in its CRE markets during the rest of the year.

In an effort to help push along the schedule for Chicago’s 400 S. Jefferson building, NorthMarq has arranged $58.5 million in acquisition and renovation financing for the property.

The announcement that Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive will be extended two miles south also highlighted the progress of Chicago Lakeside Development, a 600-acre mixed-use redevelopment of a former U.S. Steel South Works site.

CIM Group, the Los Angeles-based real estate fund, has closed on Chicago’s troubled Block 37 development. The fund purchased the property from Bank of America for a reported $84 million.

The composition of the St. Louis-area retail market will soon undergo a notable change now that Taubman Centers Inc. has broken ground on a new outlet-shopping destination, the 450,000-square-foot Taubman Prestige Outlets Chesterfield, in Chesterfield, Mo.

Gambling that video lottery terminals at Ohio racetracks will soon be legal, Hard Rock International and Milstein Entertainment announced a joint venture to develop a $275 million gaming and entertainment center at Northfield Park, a northeast Ohio harness-racing track.

Inland Real Estate Corp. has been busy in the last month. This week, the firm picked up seven single-tenant retail properties that feature 95,630 square feet of gross leasable area, as well as two grocery-anchored retail properties in Wisconsin, for an aggregate $78.3 million.

A joint venture between Tishman Speyer and an unidentified large pension fund has acquired the assets of Tishman Speyer Office Fund, an Australian listed property trust/REIT, in a deal worth a reported $1.6 billion.