GLL Takes on River North

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

James Clark, EnTrust

Munich-based GLL Real Estate Partners GmbH increases its presence in Chicago for the second time this year with the acquisition of One11 West Illinois, a fully leased mixed-use office destination in the city’s River North submarket. In a head-turning deal, the company acquired the seven-year-old asset from its developer, The Alter Group, for a reported sum of $75 million.

GLL purchased 152,200 square feet of the 227,600-square-foot building; the remaining 75,000 square feet is owned and occupied by the Erickson Institute graduate school. And according to EnTrust Realty Advisors, the firm that marketed the 10-story tower on the seller’s behalf, the trade marks one of the top office property sales in Chicago’s history on a price-per-square-foot basis. “The transaction further reinforces the trend that foreign and domestic investors view Chicago as a top-tier office market,” James Clark, managing principal at EnTrust, told Commercial Property Executive.

The investment community was attracted to One11 like bees to honey, drawn in by a handful of coveted attributes. For starters, the building boasts a blue-chip company, global cloud computing firm Salesforce.cm, as its anchor.  Additionally, the premier property is one of the few mid-sized Class A office buildings in the River North submarket’s sea of trophy and smaller brick-and-timber loft buildings. And then there’s the all-important location factor. It seems investors the world over want a piece of Chicago.

“The global competition for Class A office in Chicago is creating an environment where cap rates are compressing and values are reaching historic highs,” Clark said. In the first quarter of 2015, Chicago held the eighth position of the world’s largest recipient cities of cross-border real estate investment, according to a report by commercial real estate services firm JLL.

From EnTrust’s perspective, the One11 transaction is indication of more to come. “This successful sale points to EnTrust’s global reach and expertise in executing CBD office transactions and positions us to assist other office property owners who want to take advantage of the attractive values fueled by the significant investor appetite for Chicago CBD properties.