AmTrust Realty selling 7 Chicago office buildings in potential $1.3B deal

AmTrust Realty is looking to sell a portfolio of seven Downtown office towers in a deal that could fetch the New York firm $1.3 billion or more.

The real estate arm of AmTrust Financial Services is listing the “Chicago Legacy Collection” through Eastdil Secured, sources told the Chicago Tribune.

AmTrust bought the buildings for more than $1 billion in six deals between 2004 and 2015. That included a $376 million purchase in 2015 of two towers in the Illinois Center — 111 East Wacker Drive and 233 North Michigan Avenue.

The 6.3 million-square-foot portfolio also includes buildings at 135 South LaSalle Street, 1 East Wacker Drive, 30 North LaSalle Street, 33 North Dearborn Street and 33 West Monroe Street.

The portfolio has an overall vacancy of about 16 percent, above the roughly 13 percent Downtown average vacancy rate. And that’s before 135 South LaSalle loses Bank of America and its massive 827,000-square-foot lease next year.

The last deal of this scope was New York-based Tishman Speyer’s $1.7 billion acquisition of six office buildings in 2007 from the Blackstone Group, the Tribune reported. [Chicago Tribune] — John O’Brien