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Page 22 Subscribe online now! www.ibjonline.com Illinois Business Journal January 2011 just not a whole lot in the proverbial pipeline at this point.” One thing that might pick up the slack is the ongoing development of Scott Air Force Base. Scott continues to see large- scale investment by the U.S. Department of Defense and the creation of new jobs. McKeehan says there is even talk about making Scott a showcase air force base. “As important as the ConocoPhillips, Prairie State and U.S. Steel investments have been,” McKeehan said, “our region has truly benefitted from the $400 million plus of new investment at Scott. One thousand new positions have been created at Scott and a $130 million new facility has been built.” And, while the unemployment rate remains high, there are green shoots sprouting up all across Illinois, according REBOUND Continued from page 1 to Greg Rivara, communications manager for the Illinois Department of Employment Security. “What happened to employment in Southwestern Illinois is really what happened across the state,” Rivara said. “We have had decided improvement in the economic picture and in the employment picture in 2010. Has the recovery hit every household? Of course not. Each individual will be able to determine when he believes the recovery is at his doorstep. But if you look at all of the economic indicators, they certainly show that Illinois is in a better position than it was one year ago - and certainly in a better position than it was two years ago.” According to Rivara, the unemployment rate in Illinois first went over 6 percent in May of 2008 and increased every month after that until that trend was broken in March of 2010. From March 2010 to October 2010, the unemployment rate has gone down each and every month. “It is still challengingly high,” Rivara said. “The October unemployment rate in Illinois was 9.8 percent, but we went through 23 consecutive months of increases. That is a difficult trend to break, and we did break it in 2010.” Rivara says Illinois added nearly 54,000 jobs between January 2010 and the end of October (the last month for which data was available). The vast majority of those jobs were in the private sector, he says, with the professional and business services job sector leading the way with more than 18,000 hires. Professional business services includes temporary hires, says Rivara, and a rise in temporary hires is a signal of recovery as businesses see increased demand but are unsure how long the demand will last. Additionally, Illinois added nearly 9,000 manufacturing jobs during the time period. “That’s important,” Rivara said, “because when the economic downturn really started in earnest, one of the first sectors to be hardest hit was manufacturing. So, to have manufacturing report some growth, that is encouraging. And if you build it on the manufacturing side, you need to move it and ship it and those jobs show up on the transportation side. So we see that the trade, transportation and utilities job sector is up nearly 9,000 as well.” The same is true in real estate, according to Al Suguitan, president and chief operating officer of the Greater Gateway Association of Realtors. During 2010, Southwestern Illinois was in kind of a holding pattern, according to Suguitan. The number of listings and sales remained low compared to 2006 and 2007 numbers. Prices remained stable. But, toward the end of the year, the area got some good news: The number of home foreclosures took a significant drop. At this point, it’s too early to tell if that was an anomaly or a sign of things to come, says Suguitan, but he’s optimistic. “For the last three and a half to four years, real estate has been in the dumper,” Suguitan said. “What does that mean? It means that people out there who would have bought have not bought. Well, what’s going to happen when people say, ‘The recession is over, productivity is increasing, the jobless rate is going down, it’s below 9 percent and it looks like it’s going to be going down for the foreseeable future’? What’s going to happen is we will have another big real estate boom and it’ll shift from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market.” Southwestern Illinois Commercial Real Estate Transactions The Illinois Business Journal is proud to publish commercial real estate transactions recently completed by commercial brokers across Southwestern Illinois. Benton ◆ Nautic Global Group sold a 196,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing plant located at 10231 Sugar Creek Rd. to Komet LLC. BARBERMurphy Group represented both parties. Belleville ◆ TDW Investment Group LLC sold three apartment buildings consisting of 61,600 sq. ft. and 88 units located at 6900 W. Main St. and 515 S. Jackson St. in Belleville and 250-270 Marcella Dr. in Swansea to Willamsburg Apartments LP. BARBERMurphy Group represented both parties. ◆ Lava Land LLC sold a 7,700-sq.-ft. office building at 126 West A St. to Cave Creek Properties Inc. BARBERMurphy Group represented the seller. ◆ CDR Properties LLC leased a 1,280-sq.-ft. office suite at 114 Lincoln Place Ct. to Preferred Medical Services Inc. BARBERMurphy Group represented the tenant. ◆ SCI Illinois Funeral Services sold a 7,560-sq.-ft. commercial building located at 250 Lebanon Ave. to New Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. Johnson Properties Inc. represented both parties. ◆ William and Bonnie Santanello sold Santanello’s Oltimer Bar & Grill located at 341 Centreville Ave. to Snowden’s Grill & Bar LLC. Johnson Properties Inc. represented both parties. ◆ Southwestern Illinois Jets Basketball Club, an Illinois nonprofit corporation, leased an executive office suite at 1508 West Blvd. from James Bernosky. Johnson Properties Inc. represented both parties. ◆ Saovarat Serechumroenrot leased 900 sq. ft. at 229 N. Illinois St. from Kirby Holding Group. Kunkel Commercial Group Inc. represented both parties. Cahokia ◆ White Tiger Tattoo Studio leased 1,650 sq. ft. of retail space at 3317 Mississippi Ave. from Amrut and Ankit Patel. Johnson Properties Inc. represented both parties. Collinsville ◆ Michael R. Bielke sold a 3,600-sq.- ft. retail/warehouse space at 110 North Chestnut St. to William and Jane Bush. BARBERMurphy Group represented the seller. Columbia ◆ West-Shore Group leased 3,000 sq. ft. at 324 Southport Dr. from Southport One LLC. Kunkel Commercial Group Inc. represented both parties. ILLINOIS As a top priority, the General Assembly’s concentrated focus again for this year will be on the state’s growing debt and continued financial instability and how it is adversely affecting Illinois’ economic growth to retain businesses within the state. With the state’s financial future being uncertain, business leaders and taxpayers feel the General Assembly needs to become better stewards of the budget to reduce the $13 billion deficit for FY 2012. Illinois Government Affairs Report: St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association By KEVIN RIGGS Director, Illinois Public Affairs St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association Consequently, the majority of elected leaders agree that balancing the state budget needs to be achieved before the state is forced to declare insolvency. The General Assembly members are in the process of identifying programs and line items that are having a negative impact on revenues, which are not essential to the state. Furthermore, both chambers are having conversations to discuss possible revenue enhancers, which could only be passed only with the commitment of establishing no new programs that do not lead directly to job creation and revenue growth as well as reducing appropriation levels for state agencies and looking at short-term borrowing. Additionally, there is a consensus that Illinois needs to become more business friendly and reduce the debt to improve its bond rating. Both the House and Senate will be working on comprehensive plans to address workers compensation, Medicaid, pensions and education reforms, which are the leading factors consuming state revenues. Riggs ■ See TRANSACTIONS, page 23
