B of A sells LaSalle Bank -- the building, that is

The sale of the beautiful Art Deco landmark has closed, according to CoStar. I've heard a little of AmTrust Realty Corp., the buyer, but the lender, Windy City Funding Co., LLC, is an admittedly unknown commodity to me. If anyone has some dirt, so to speak, then let me know. I love learning new things!

With its great mid-Loop location, I'm sure tenants would like the place. We don't yet know how much space B of A intends to keep and what the terms of any such lease might be. Ear, meet ground.

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Chicago legal industry thoughts

An interesting (possible) incongruity I am finding: Half of GCs surveyed are planning to do more work in house and cut back on law firm usage (one big reason -- the cost of hiring BigLaw firms to do less than bet-the-company work).

Yet, notwithstanding this, smaller firms that could perhaps compete on this front are still merging into BigLaw. On the heels of Welsh & Katz (a fine IP firm) announcing its merger with Husch Blackwell Sanders (itself a recent merger!), now we have the first-rate mid-sized Schwartz Cooper dissolving, with almost all of its lawyers moving to Detroit-based Dykema. In turn, Dykema got its start in Chicago in 2004 by merging with Rooks Pitts, also a well-known mid-sized firm.

So, is this economies of scale? A fear that you have to grow to compete? How will clients react? Schwartz Cooper was well-known for its work for LaSalle Bank (now B of A); did that play into it as well? I'm going to have to make a phone call or two.

One last thought: just as we have lost most of our locally run banks, is this now the irreversible trend for law firms, too? I hope some stay around. One that I particularly thought did something interesting recently is Much Shelist (which is well known for having a top real estate team), which announced the creation of a board of outside advisers to help with its strategic direction. I'll have to follow this and see where it takes them.

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Rambling, semi OT weekend thoughts

Good infrastructure is a key to good, well-valued dirt.

I am starting to think we need an Eisenhower-era level project to fix infrastructure problems, be it publicly or privately financed. Can our ridiculously school taxes go to roads instead? At least I use the roads.

Where I live roads are literally crumbling. One main artery, US 45/52 from the Will County line north, is almost impassible. Yes, it is THAT bad, so much so that some have called for its closure. I found similar problems near O'Hare yesterday.

The one good thing our current governor has done? Open road tolling.

Are the rumors of an increase in residential refinancings true? Or are a lot banks just really messed up in underwriting? I was happy to see National City staying independent for the time being. (But they certainly not out of the woods, as this story reminds us. And other banks, too, are not immune.)

And what's up with RBS? Would buying LaSalle along with ABN/AMRO have made a difference?

River West is happily taking orders, which I hope means there's life in this market yet. I guess we have to face that deals will be done, whether with willing sellers, distressed sellers or banks dumping properties handed to them by borrowers. A title company colleague told me the other day that 30% of his/her company's business was "touched" in one way or the other by the foreclosure process.

I really like the idea of creating a NYBOR rate tracking the borrowing costs of US banks as a benchmark instead of LIBOR. Fine, call me a xenophobe.

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