Sterling Bay selling one of its first acquisitions in the city

The developer is seeking $21M for its portion of a century-old West Loop office building

Sterling Bay's Andy Gloor
Sterling Bay's Andy Gloor

Sterling Bay is listing one of its first acquisitions in the city, a century-old loft office building in the West Loop.

The prolific Chicago developer is seeking around $21 million, or roughly $325 per square foot, for the more than five floors it still owns at 626 West Jackson Street, according to Crain’s.

The building was the Chicago Housing Authority headquarters when Sterling Bay made it just its second office purchase for $7.8 million in 2008. Sterling Bay renovated the building and then sold off close to three full floors in 2009 to nonprofit Cara Program and Dearborn Capital Management for $8.5 million.

The remaining 64,000 square feet still owned by Sterling Bay is leased by six tenants and anchored by design firm IDEO, which has 20,000 square feet, according to a CBRE marketing flyer. Cody Hundertmark and Tom Sitz of CBRE are representing Sterling Bay on the sale.

The property was appraised at $11.9 million in 2013, when Sterling Bay refinanced it with a $8.6 million loan.

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A similar building not too far away at 209 West Jackson Boulevard sold to South Miami-based Market Street Real Estate Partners for about $24 million in March, seven years after Michigan-based Farbman Group acquired it for $13.1 million.

Sterling Bay has developed a number of properties in the nearby Fulton Market District, including the Google Midwest headquarters at 1K Fulton, the new McDonald’s corporate headquarters and the nearby “vendor village” office building at 210 North Carpenter Street.

It is working on a three-building project that will bring 1.7 million square feet of office space to the 300 block of North Green Street along with a new hotel development, its second in the neighborhood.

The company also is behind the proposed Lincoln Yards mega-development along the North Branch of the Chicago River, and in the past year spent nearly $1.5 billion buying three trophy Downtown office buildings. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien