Chicago & Midwest + Greater Chicagoland + Office | January 24, 2023

Chicago Investment Firm Sees Upside in Suburban Office Properties

As the battered office sector adjusts to post-COVID realities, Jeff Bernstein and Larry Elbaum are betting that suburban buildings packed with small, local firms have more upside than their CBD counterparts. Crain’s Chicago Business reported that Bernstein and Elbaum, who founded Bradford Allen Realty Services in 2003, have been among the most aggressive buyers of local suburban offices since the pandemic began via their BA Investment Advisors.

BA has paid more than $120 million for properties in Downers Grove, Deerfield, Northbrook and next to O’Hare International Airport, where it bought a big office building in November, Crain’s reported.

“We were believers at the outset of the pandemic that office space was not going to go away, it was just going to be used differently,” Elbaum told Crain’s. “We saw something that made sense to us.”

To support that thesis, BA has renewed or expanded numerous leases in its suburban holdings.

Pictured: BA Realty Advisors’ Edens Corporate Center in Northbrook, IL.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).