Trammell Crow buys Fulton Market development site

The developer wants an office building on the property after dropping apartment plans

Adam Saphier and a rendering of Trammel's proposed office building
Adam Saphier and a rendering of Trammel's proposed office building

Trammell Crow Company acquired a Fulton Market development site where it plans to develop an office building.

The Dallas-based developer bought the property at the corner of Fulton Street and Ogden Avenue for $20 million from Economy Packing Company, according to Cook County Property records.

Trammell Crow earlier this year abandoned its two-year-old plan to build an high-end apartment tower on the site — it would have been 18 stories — deciding instead to pursue a 13-story office building. The 315,000-square-foot project on the western edge of Fulton Market would include ground-floor retail.

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The original residential plan would have likely been tougher to build because Alderman Walter Burnett (27th) has kept any residential developments out of the area of Fulton Market, between Lake and Hubbard streets.

Still, the change takes Trammell Crow into an office market in the neighborhood that’s growing increasingly competitive. More than 6 million square feet of office space is under construction or in planning in Fulton Market. Sterling Bay alone is building 1.7 million square feet of office space in that area, on Green and Morgan streets.

And tenant demand continues as evidenced by Shapack Partners’ quick lease-up of the spec office building it developed at 811 West Fulton Street, even as office rents in the neighborhood rank at the top in the greater downtown area.