Riverside refinances 150 North Riverside office tower with $470M loan

Riverside Investment & Development took out a $470 million loan on its 54-story office tower at 150 North Riverside Plaza, the second time the developer refinanced the property in just over a year.

Pacific Life Insurance Company provided the loan, according to Cook County property records.

The developer took out a $300 million construction loan on the property in 2014, Crain’s reported at the time. Riverside swapped out that debt with a $470 million loan from Bank of America in 2017, the same year the tower was completed.

Riverside courted potential buyers for the building in 2016. O’Donnell said at the time he preferred to keep the property, but was exploring ways to settle the nearly $300 million in construction debt his firm had racked up.

A spokesman for Riverside declined to say Friday whether the company is still trying to sell the building.

O’Donnell’s firm and the Howard Hughes Corporation broke ground this year on a 57-story tower at 110 North Wacker Drive, whose construction is expected to cost at least $300 million, according to city building permit records. Bank of America will lease 500,000 square feet and Lincoln Financial will lease 60,000 square feet in the 1.53-million-square-foot office tower once it’s completed in 2020.

In October, city officials approved Riverside’s $900 million proposal to redevelop Union Station, including building a new 55-story office tower next to the train hub.

The developer also is adding its name to a 7-acre chunk of the Chicago River District project being planned by Tribune Media in the River West neighborhood.

Downtown office rents have lagged so far this year, as older building owners are forced to compete with a growing wave of class-A office complexes cropping up Downtown.