The top 5 Chicago-area office investment sales of September

The booming O’Hare submarket dominated Chicago-area office investment sales last month, notching three transactions combining for $262 million in sales, led by Sam Zell’s $182 million sale of the Triangle Plaza complex to the Shidler Group.

Two other sales on the list were transacted in the Loop, whose shrinking vacancy has contributed to record high office rents in the city.

Salt Lake City-based Bridge Investment Group netted one property in each of the crowded submarkets, paying a combined $176 million for One North Lasalle Street and a Rosemont complex on the edge of the airport grounds.

Together, the top five office sales of September added up to more than $537 million, compared to just $159 million last month, according to data from Cook County property records.

1. Triangle Plaza | $182 million

Sam Zell unloaded the last of his Chicago office properties last month when his Equity Commonwealth took $182 million for the deed to the 316,000-square-foot Triangle Plaza office complex near the Cumblerland CTA Blue Line station. The buyer was Honolulu-based Shidler Group.

Earlier this year, Zell sold Groupon’s River West headquarters at 600 West Chicago Avenue headquarters to Sterling Bay for $510 million.

The Shidler group is now asking for $35 million for its 22-story office tower at 200 South Michigan Avenue.

2. 303 East Wacker Drive | $162 million

Beacon Capital Partners picked up the 28-story Three Illinois Center with the goal of finding new tenants for the space, which was just 69 percent occupied as of June, according to Bisnow.

The building’s seller, Franklin Street Properties, bought the building for $167 million in 2007 and unsuccessfully tried to sell it in 2016.

Beacon also made waves this year when it leased WeWork to its seventh and eighth Chicago locations at 515 North State Street and 330 North Wabash Avenue.

3. 1 North Lasalle Street | $113.3 million

A joint venture of Hilco Real Estate and two MB Real Estate executives reaped 26 percent more from their sale of this 47-story Loop tower than the $82.5 million they paid in 2016.

The sellers spent about $4 million on an amenity upgrade to the building before they sold it to Utah-based Bridge Investment Group last month.

The limestone building, which in 1999 was added to the National Register of Historic Places, is about 86 percent leased.

4. 10255 and 10275 West Higgins Road, Rosemont | $62.4 million

This business center next to O’Hare Airport marked the seventh suburban office property sold by the Blackstone Group in the past two years, netting the New York-based real estate bohemoth $750 million.

The sale marked the second major Chicago-area acquisition for Bridge Investment Group in September.

Blackstone, meanwhile, is neck-deep in a $668 million renovation of the Willis Tower, that will include a transformation and expansion of the base of the city’s tallest building. 

5. 2300 East Devon Avenue, Des Plaines | $17.6 million

Los Angeles-based Capital Group sold the O’Hare Lake Office Center for $17.6 million, less than half of the $39 million it paid to acquire the complex in 2012. But when Capital Group took over the land that year, it also took on $19 million in assumed debt.

Washington, D.C.-based Easterly Government Properties, which specializes in managing spaces leased by the federal government, marked its first Illinois venture with its purchase of the 240,000-square-foot building.