Burnham Center sale set to be 2019’s priciest at $80M despite huge discount

Golub & Company will buy the property from a venture tied to seller Alliance HSP, which will retain ownership of the land underneath

Burnham Center and Golub & Company CEO Michael Newman
Burnham Center and Golub & Company CEO Michael Newman

UPDATED, Nov. 5, 2:31 p.m.: Golub & Company is about to pick up a Loop office building at a deep discount from its asking price but would nonetheless be the priciest Downtown office sale of the year so far.

The Chicago-based development firm will join an unknown family office in paying about $80 million to acquire the 585,000-square-foot Burnham Center from Pennsylvania-based Alliance HSP, according to Crain’s. The seller had reportedly sought more than $100 million for the 105-year-old building at 111 West Washington Street when it hit the market in March.

Alliance HSP paid just under $95 million to buy the property in 2012, before splitting ownership of the 12-story building from the land underneath it. Its interest in the building was valued around $73 million, while Shidler Group, a Hawaii-based entity controlled by Alliance managing partner Jay Shidler, took ownership of the underlying land.

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The landlord grew the building’s occupancy from 80 percent to 92 percent, in part due to a lease expansion by anchor tenant Grubhub, which now occupies more than 156,000 square feet in the complex.

Golub, which is also collaborating with Los Angeles-based CIM on a wholesale transformation of the area surrounding Tribune Tower, joined Farpoint Development this month to buy the 1,675-unit Prairie Shores apartment complex on the city’s Near South Side in a reported $180 million deal.

Dan Deuter, Cody Hundertmark and Tom Sitz of Cushman & Wakefield are representing Alliance HSP in the sale. [Crain’s]Alex Nitkin