11 East Partners buys commercial space at Gold Coast resi tower

Real estate investor 11 East Partners bought the commercial space in a Gold Coast tower for $16.9 million.

The Habitat Company sold the space in the 52-story Newberry Plaza condo building at 1050 North State Street, which is anchored by a Morton’s steakhouse restaurant.

Wintrust Bank provided an $8.85 million loan for the commercial space purchase.

In buying the property, Chicago-based 11 East Partners is grabbing another prime space in the healthy Chicago retail market, which saw the vacancy rate drop to 6.4 percent in the first half of this year, according to a report by Newmark Knight Frank.

It also joins other investors who have spent millions recently on Downtown retail space, including Paragon Real Estate, which bought the commercial portion of a historic Loop building for $16 million.

Earlier this year, the Newberry Plaza’s condo association sued the owners of the townhome complex next door, saying they had underpaid their water bills for a decade and demanded more than $200,000 in back payments.