Thor Equities adding to Fulton Market foothold with new office/retail building

Thor Equities is adding to its foothold in Fulton Market as it starts construction on a 109,000-square office and retail building near the gateway to the booming neighborhood.

The five-story building at 905 West Fulton Street will feature ground-floor retail at the corner of Fulton and Peoria, on the site of four buildings Thor bought in 2016 and then demolished.

The building sits along a block-long stretch of Fulton Street filled with Thor-owned properties. The New York-based firm led by Joseph Sitt in March bought the one-time Isaacson & Stein Fish buildings at 800-810 West Fulton for $12 million.

Thor previously paid $36 million in November 2016 for the buildings next door, at 816-820 West Fulton. It also owns 1003 West Fulton, 942 West Fulton and 229 West Randolph Street in Fulton Market.

Centennial Bank issued Thor a $19.3 million loan in March for the former Isaacson & Stein property and a $30.6 million loan for the site at the corner of Fulton and Peoria where construction is getting underway. The building, designed by Hartshorne Pluckard Architecture, is scheduled to be completed early next year.

Mark Baby and Ben Cleveland of Cushman & Wakefield are handling leasing for the building’s office space, while Thor’s George Stanchfield is handling the retail leasing in-house.

While Thor still owns the Palmer House Hilton in the Loop, where it took out a $427 million refinancing in June, it has sold off other State Street properties in the past couple of years as it turns its attention to Fulton Market.

Thor’s new building will add to a slew of office developments in the West Loop neighborhood, where Sterling Bay is adding 1.7 million square feet of office space on one block of Green Street alone.

Prolific Fulton Market developer Shapack Partners also has office projects in the works, as do Mark Goodman & Associates and other developers.