Here are the top 10 Chicago investment sales of the first quarter

Starwood Capital and Slate Office REIT made their entries into the downtown Chicago office market during the first quarter, with the No. 2 and No. 3 sales of the quarter, respectively.

The market for office investment sales had a strong start to the year, with more than $1.2 billion in deals, according to a report by NKF, which notes that 2015 was the only year in the past four in which office sales downtown hit the 10-figure mark.

Even outside of the few marquee deals, the quarter saw some significant properties change hands, including a hotel still under construction in the booming Fulton Market neighborhood, a would-be data center site scooped up by one of the city’s most significant office building owners and the largest condo deconversion in town to date.

Take a look at the full list, and stay tuned for more quarterly and monthly rankings like this one.

1. $510 million

Property: 600 West Chicago Avenue
Buyer: Sterling Bay
Seller: Equity Commonwealth
Seller’s broker: Eastdil Secured

Sterling Bay tops the list of buyers with its pickup of the 1.4 million-square-foot 600 West Chicago Avenue, home to Groupon’s headquarters, from Equity Commonwealth. The sale was brokered by Eastdil Secured and closed in February.

2. $360 million

Property: One South Dearborn
Buyer: Starwood Capital
Seller: Olen Properties
Seller’s broker: JLL

Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital made its entry into the Chicago market with the January purchase of One South Dearborn, an 833,000-square-foot, Class A office building. Around the time of the closing, the building re-signed its largest tenant, law firm Sidley Austin, to a 575,000-square-foot lease through 2030.

3. $86 million

Property: Two First National Plaza, 20 South Clark Street
Buyer: Slate Office REIT
Seller: EXAN Capital JV Allegra European Holdings
Seller’s broker: N/A

The 31-story, 380,000-square-foot office building would be the first in the U.S. office market for Toronto-based Slate, according to Crain’s.

4. $60 million

Property: Century Tower, 182 West Lake Street
Buyer: Golub & Company and USA Real Estate
Seller: Century Tower Condo Association
Seller’s broker: N/A

In the largest condo deconversion yet in Chicago, the 292-unit Century Tower in the Loop sold in February. The sale price works out to about $205,000 per unit.

5. $50 million

Property: Midpointe, 4050 West 115th Street
Buyer: Bridge Investment Group
Seller: Castle Lanterra Equity
Seller’s broker: Berkadia

This 427-unit apartment complex in the Mt. Greenwood neighborhood on the far Southwest Side of the city sold in late February. Castle Lanterra Equity bought the complex in April 2014 for $28.5 million, according to Commercial Observer.

6. $43 million

Property: WeWork Fulton Market, 200 North Green Street
Buyer: Randy Rissman
Seller: AJ Capital Partners, Shapack Development, WeWork and Shorenstein Properties
Seller’s broker: Eastdil Secured

WeWork occupies about 77,000 square feet in the building, which sits in the heart of the Fulton Market district, where Shapack has several other properties, including 801-811 West Fulton Market and the Parker Fulton Market, a 29-story luxury rental tower that opened in 2016.

7. $34 million

Property: 717 South Desplaines Street
Buyer: 601W Companies
Seller: Ascent Corp.
Seller’s broker: Ladder Capital

This 4.5 acre site was slated for development as a data center when Ascent Corp. bought it for $27 million about five years ago. 601W Companies, which is redeveloping the nearby Old Main Post Office into Class A office space also recently bought other sites in the immediate area, including a parking lot at 527 South Clinton Street for $10 million.

8. $23 million

Property: 120 East Oak Street
Buyer: L3 Capital
Seller: Private seller
Seller’s broker: Mid-America RE Group

The property sits on one of Chicago’s priciest retail strips and currently houses a branch of Northern Trust Bank.

9. $15 million

Property: Nobu Hotel, 854 West Randolph Street
Buyer: RCD Hotels
Seller: M Development
Seller’s broker: Conlon Commercial

News broke late in 2017 that Mark Hunt’s M Development would sell the hotel, which is under construction and is expected to open before the end of this year.

10. $15 million

Property: 400 North May Street
Buyer: MCZ Development Corporation
Seller: Lech Losiowski
Seller’s broker: SVN

According to the Chicago Tribune, the asking price for this 75,000-square-foot loft office building was $17.5 million. It hit the market about a year ago.
Source: The Real Deal analysis of Chicago sales transactions identified as closed in Real Capital Analytics’ database between Jan. 1 and March 31.