A Denver-based real estate investment firm is about to place a $128 million bet on Chicago’s suburban office market.
KORE Investments is under contract to buy the 13-story Esplanade II building in west-suburban Downers Grove from BentallGreenOak, the Toronto-based firm formerly known as Bentall Kennedy, Crain’s reported Wednesday. The buyer would pay about $220 per square foot for the property.
The reported sale price falls short of the $140 million Bentall Kennedy was seeking when it listed the complex last year.
The 584,000-square-foot complex at 3500 Lacey Road is about 97 percent leased, having bounced back after anchor tenant Sara Lee moved its offices to the West Loop in 2012. BentallGreenOak has spent about $7.4 million on improvements to the building in the past five years.
The complex is part of a 3 million-square-foot office park near the intersection of I-355 and I-88.
Nearby, senior housing operator Lifespace got underway this spring on a $180 million redevelopment of a complex it manages on the 44-acre Oak Trace site.
And in neighboring Oak Brook, billionaire John Paul DeJoria bought the 80-acre former McDonald’s campus for an undisclosed price.
The Esplanade II sale would represent the priciest office sale recorded in the suburbs since so far this year, according to Crain’s.
Pat Shields and Bryan Rosenberg of HFF represented BentallGreenOak in the sale. [Crain’s] — Alex Nitkin