HSA Commercial Real Estate’s Wayne Shulman, senior vice president, Corporate Real Estate Services and Office Brokerage, and Tim Thompson, Industrial Brokerage, recently represented the ownership of 1260 W. Madison in a lease with SkinnyCorp LLC, the parent company of Threadless, for the entire 45,000-square-foot warehouse facility.

SkinnyCorp LLC signed a long-term lease and will use the building for executive offices and distribution of apparel for its subsidiary, Threadless, an Internet-based seller of custom-designed t-shirts. Threadless will relocate from its Ravenswood facilities to 1260 W. Madison in early September.

“This is a win-win deal for everyone. The site and building will give Threadless the ideal location to consolidate operations in the River West neighborhood, which provides the casual and eclectic atmosphere their employees will enjoy,” said Shulman. “The property is on a full city block and will provide a unique, in-city campus type setting.”

The complex transaction involved a change of ownership as well as a zoning reversal to accommodate a light industrial user. The 1260 W. Madison facility is a former FedEx property acquired from a Milwaukee bank by Chicago-based JRG Capital Partners LLC in a loan sale auction last year. The previous owners had planned to redevelop the property into condominiums. Rezoning was required before the property could be repurposed for commercial use.

“The new owners stepped in at the ideal time,” said Shulman. ” We were able to guide the deal through a loan sale and deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure, and reversed the zoning from residential back to the property’s original zoning for commercial use. These steps were required to position the property for an appropriate use in the current market.”

Daniel McCarthy, senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, represented SkinnyCorp/ Threadless in the transaction.