Alter Group selling home of WeWork’s Chicago flagship, asking $130M

The 17-story office building at 20 W. Kinzie Street includes a 175K sf location for the co-working giant

Alter Group President Michael Alter (orange) and WeWork CEO Adam Neumann (green)and 20 West Kinzie Street (Credit: 20westkinzie, Getty Images, and WNBA)
Alter Group President Michael Alter (orange) and WeWork CEO Adam Neumann (green)and 20 West Kinzie Street (Credit: 20westkinzie, Getty Images, and WNBA)

Alter Group is asking $130 million for its River North office building that’s anchored by WeWork’s flagship Chicago location.

The Wilmette-based developer is selling the seven-story, 385,000-square-foot building at 20 West Kinzie Street, continuing a sell-off strategy it embarked on four years ago.

President Michael Alter, who’s also an owner of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, said in 2014 the firm would sell off its nearly 3 million-square-foot nationwide portfolio and form joint ventures on new projects as the company planned its future, Crain’s reported at the time.

Scott Latter of Entrust Realty is the listing agent for 20 West Kinzie, where WeWork occupies 175,000 square feet of space, making it the building’s largest tenant.

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WeWork in June added a sixth floor to its lease in the building, just before the co-working giant announced an expansion into two more locations of more than 200,000 square feet in River North buildings owned by Beacon Capital Partners. That deal saw WeWork take five floors at 515 State Street and two floors of the AMA Plaza building at 330 North Wabash Avenue.

Alter in 2015 sold the home of another WeWork location, 111 West Illinois Street, to Munich-based GLL Partners for $75 million, according to Crain’s.

The building at 20 West Kinzie once was Google’s Chicago home until it moved into a new headquarters in Fulton Market developed by Sterling Bay. The first six floors of the building are occupied by the 215-key Kinzie Hotel, which is owned by Bixby Bridge Capital.

The building would be the second WeWork-occupied building to sell recently, after German investor Commerz Real bought the National building at 125 South Clark Street from Blue Star Properties for $202 million.