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.
Van Vlissingen & Co. Achieves 100% Occupancy in Lake Zurich, IL After Leasing Unit H at 100 Oakwood
Van Vlissingen & Co. is proud to share our first 2026 leasing milestone. In Lake Zurich, Illinois, our portfolio is...
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Key Waukegan Development Opportunities In 2026
Waukegan in 2026 represents one of the most compelling value-driven development stories in Chicagoland. Positioned along Lake Michigan with direct...
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Key Schaumburg Development Opportunities In 2026
Schaumburg Development Opportunities In 2026 Schaumburg in 2026 is a rare case study in stability meeting transformation. While many suburbs...
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6 Commercial Real Estate Trends In 2026
6 Commercial Real Estate Trends In 2026 The commercial real estate market entering 2026 looks materially different than it did...
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Designing Offices for 2030: How to Build Class A Workspaces That Will Still Perform
How to Build Office Spaces That Will Still Perform In 2030? Designing a Class A office building today requires an...
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Preparing Commercial Real Estate for a Driverless or Mostly Driverless Future
The shift toward a driverless or mostly driverless transportation system is no longer theoretical. Autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems,...
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Your Office Needs To Match Your Corporate Brand
Aligning Workspaces With Your Corporate Brand For years, office space was treated as a neutral container. Square footage was optimized,...
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The Power of Natural Elements in Commercial Real Estate: Mass Timber and the Evolving Built Environment
In an era where tenant experience, sustainability, and long-term asset value increasingly drive underwriting decisions, developers are rethinking what makes...
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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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