Yearly Archives: 2016

At an anniversary reception Monday celebrating 100 years of service and industry leadership, the Illinois Association of REALTORS® unveiled its new name, Illinois REALTORS®, and introduced the association’s new Executive Vice President Luke Bell.

Illinois REALTORS® has named Luke Bell as executive vice president for the 44,000-member trade association in Springfield. Bell, 34, joins Illinois REALTORS® having served in a variety of roles with the Kansas Association of REALTORS®, most recently as vice president of governmental affairs/general counsel. The Medicine Lodge, Kansas, native will begin his new role June 1.

Chief Judge for the Northern District of Illinois District Court Ruben Castillo will cut the ribbon to the new U.S. Probation Office for the Northern District of Illinois. With $1.4 million in annual projected rent savings, the new office is a modern workspace designed to accommodate the increasingly mobile work of U.S. Probation officers. A pilot project of the federal judiciary’s Integrated Workplace Initiative (IWI), the new office features an open concept with “touchdown” stations and “huddle rooms” with video conference features.

The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) joined the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and more than 400 community leaders and organizations to unveil a new four-year plan to improve health and well-being of Chicago residents. Healthy Chicago 2.0 provides more than 200 strategies to close persistent health disparities facing Chicago communities

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced the launch of a citywide task force dedicated to addressing and reducing homelessness in Chicago. The Task Force to Reduce Homelessness will focus on improved coordination between city and sister departments, increased efficiencies in service delivery, and identifying additional resources to devote to these efforts. Lisa Morrison Butler, Commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS), will serve as chair of the task force.

U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, went “undercover” to conduct mock interviews for a job readiness class at A Safe Haven, a non-profit social enterprise that empowers families and individuals experiencing homelessness or crisis with the skills necessary to transform their lives and achieve self-sufficiency.

In a major speech today, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel outlined Building on Burnham, a comprehensive plan to invest in the Lakefront, the Chicago River, natural areas and recreational opportunities in neighborhoods across the city. This plan follows the Mayor’s successful expansion of Chicago’s park system in his first mayoral term, which has already added 750 acres of new parkland, 256 new playgrounds and more than $800 million in capital investment from neighborhoods and private sources.

Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD), praised new measures released by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)this week that will ensure better performance standards for non-motorized modes of transportation. These measures will establish new safety standards to better protect pedestrians and cyclists that states can use to lower fatalities and reach important safety goals.

Positive housing market momentum carried into February with home sales and median prices experiencing solid year-over-year gains, even amid lower inventory levels, according to the Illinois Association of REALTORS

U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), member of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, and Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth ( IL-08) today introduced a comprehensive legislative approach to address the nationwide contaminated drinking water crisis brought to light by ongoing problems with the public water supply in Flint, Michigan. The Representatives’ proposal for protecting the safety of America’s drinking water would both improve testing to keep potential contaminants like lead and copper out of public water supplies and provide resources to help communities remove contaminants that may already be present.

Randy Blankstein, President of the national net lease advisory firm The Boulder Group, will be the conference chair of the Midwest Real Estate News 2nd Annual Net Lease Summit Conference in Chicago on July 20th, 2016. Additionally, he will be moderating a panel at the conference discussing the state of the Net Lease Market

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that five communities in Illinois will receive a total of $1,579,817 in grant funding through the Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency (ROSS) Program, a federal grant program administered by Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help develop urban communities.

After introducing legislation to require the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to update its lead regulations to match standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with the HUD Secretary, Julian Castro, to conduct a thorough review of its regulations of acceptable lead exposure levels for children living in federally subsidized housing. A call he first made in a January 26, 2016 letter to Castro

With the spring storm season approaching, and extreme weather events increasing in severity and frequency, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) wrote to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Craig Fugate today to ask that the agency “quickly initiate…a nationwide study focusing on the prevalence, causes, and costs of urban flooding.”

Turn either way from the front entrance of the Melvin Price Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in East St. Louis, Illinois, and you’ll walk past blocks of boarded up buildings and abandoned lots.