Laramar Group to Buy Historic Belden-Stratford; Prudential Acquires 439,434-Square-Foot Office Tower

By Gabriel Circiog, Associate Editor

The landmark Belden-Stratford, overlooking Lincoln Park, is being acquired by Laramar Group for nearly $60 million. ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com reports the 297-unit apartment hotel, located at 2300 Lincoln Park West, was bought from an affiliate of IRMCO Properties & Management Corp. Following the death of company founder Leonard D. Richman, IRMCO put the six-building Chicago portfolio, which included the Belden-Stratford, up for sale in June.

The residential hotel was built in 1933 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Currently 25 percent of the building’s units are hotel rooms, with the balance being rented out as conventional apartments.

The sale is expected to close in December. The deal was brokered by  HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P.), who was hired to seek buyers for the six-building portfolio. IRMCO also agreed to sell the Flamingo, a 167-unit building at 5500 S. Shore Drive that was built in 1926, and the Versaille, a 196-unit building at 5254 S. Dorchester Ave. to TLC Management Co.

In other news, Prudential Real Estate Investor, the real estate investment management and advisory business of Prudential Financial Inc., has acquired 22 West Washington for $183.5 million. The 17-story high-rise is a Class A office building located in downtown Chicago’s Central Loop. The building has 439,434 square feet of usable space and is currently fully leased. The tower is home to Morningstar’s corporate headquarters and the local CBS television affiliate.

The office tower was bought from a joint venture between BlackRock and Golub & Co. The latter will remain the property manager.

PREI currently manages around $48.1 billion in gross real estate assets, while Prudential Financial Inc. has $883 billion of assets under management across the globe.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons