Two Chicago-Area Office Buildings to Change Hands

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com reports that Wakefield, Mass.-based Franklin Street Properties is about to close a transaction for a six-story office building located at 909 Davis Street in Downtown Evanston. According to sources familiar with the deal, the sale price would be around $35 million, or about $180 per square foot, slightly less than the price offered last fall by Northbrook, Ill.-based Romanek Properties Ltd.—$39 million, or $200 per square foot—before the deal was aborted.

The 195,245-square-foot facility was built in 2002; the following year it was purchased for $34.2 million by a German real estate fund advised by Real Estate Capital Partners LP, according to ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com. The building is currently fully leased, its anchor tenant being Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a textbook publisher who occupies 149,000 square feet of space within the facility.

According to CB Richard Ellis Inc. Senior Vice President William Novelli, who previously listed the property, the building is one of Chicago’s best because of the amenities, including immediate access to Metra and CTA trains, retail and condominiums.

ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com reports another major transaction that made the headlines this week. The deal concerns an office tower located at 111 E. Wacker Drive in the East Loop that is to be acquired by CommonWealth REIT for almost $151 million.

The 1 million-square-foot building was purchased in 2006 by Parkway Properties Inc. for a much larger amount—$198 million—the price difference of almost 25 percent clearly reflecting the recession’s negative impact on commercial real estate values.