Alvarez & Marsal buying Downtown loft office buildings for $24M

Alvarez & Marsal Property Investments is finalizing a deal to buy a pair of loft office buildings in River North and the South Loop for about $24 million.

The New York firm’s deal with R2 Companies and Walton Street Capital would add to its Chicago portfolio, including the three office buildings it bought last year in Fulton Market from Sterling Bay, according to Crain’s.

The firm is buying the historic 14-story, 85,000-square-foot Pontiac Building at 542 South Dearborn Street and a three-story, 55,000-square-foot building at 445 West Erie Street, Alvarez & Marsal founding partner Victor Alvarez confirmed.

R2 and Walton Street picked up the buildings in 2016 as part of a $86 million office portfolio acquisition. The two buildings were worth $21.3 million in that deal, according to Real Capital Analytics.

CBRE brokers Cody Hundertmark and Tom Sitz are representing R2 and Walton Street.

According to a CBRE report last week, the overall office vacancy rate Downtown was 13 percent at the end of the second quarter, up just a fraction from the previous quarter despite the addition of more than 1 million square feet of new office space. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien