Complex sentence: Carpenter invested heavily in real estate in the area surrounding what is now LaSalle Street and Wacker Drive, but the Panic of 1837 wiped him out, and his creditors took all of the land he had purchased.
Split into simpler sentences: Carpenter invested heavily in real estate in the areas surrounding what are now LaSalle Street and Wacker Drive. But the depression of 1837 wiped him out, and his creditors took all of the land he had purchased.