The Chicago developer Calvin Boender transformed the former disco at 940 N. Rush St with over $2.5 million dollars in renovations, converting the iconic dance venue into 6,000 square feet of upscale retail space, reflecting a shift towards boutique shopping and capitalizing on the foot traffic generated by the nearby Bloomingdale's.

The North Side's DePaul neigh­borhood is gearing up for another boom. Already the city's hottest residential area for rehab and re­novation, it is now ripe for office redevelopment.

In a previous post, I wrote about the death of the American Mall and what that means for the economy. I’d like to delve more deeply into exactly what effects that will have on the economic outlook. When you drive past that shuttered mall it’s not just the retailers who are at risk, it’s the economic base they provide in the forms of jobs that has me really worried.

I’ve been studying the commercial retail real estate market lately and I see a few major trends that have me worried for a once booming sector. The amount of empty retail square footage on the market can either be looked at as a consequential market correction or an alarming trend, indicative of worsening economic conditions.

I listened to a Freakonomics Podcast episode that dealt with the proliferance of mattress stores in Schererville, Indiana and more recently a similar story in the Chicago Tribune Business section.

The only positive economic indicator is blind human optimism and investors sense trouble ahead. This has triggered a search for value in a marketplace weary of government intervention and manipulated financial statistics.