Investors consider Chicago’s priciest deconversion project at Lake Point Tower

Lake Point Tower located at 505 N. Lake Shore Drive Coldwell Banker agent Jack Michalkiewicz (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Lake Point Tower located at 505 N. Lake Shore Drive Coldwell Banker agent Jack Michalkiewicz (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Real estate investors are looking to undertake a project that would be nearly seven-times pricier than the largest deconversion deal in Chicago over the past five years.

Residents in the massive 70-story Lake Point Tower recently received letters from a Coldwell Banker agent who said investors are willing to pay “full market value or above,” according to Crain’s. The investors, including an individual named Joseph Evans, would then convert the units back into multifamily apartments.

The 857-unit tower at 505 N. Lake Shore Drive opened in 1968 with apartments. But they were converted into condos in 1988, which coincidentally was the largest conversion at the time.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Per state law, 75 percent of the owners would need to approve the sale. If completed, the project would overshadow all other deconversions. The largest so far was one year ago in River City, where a development group purchased all 449 units for $90.5 million. Another deal underway by ESG Kullen includes 309 units at the high-rise on Oak Street, which traded for $92 million.

The Coldwell Banker agent, Jack Michalkiewicz, is negotiating for the listed 22 units at Lake Point Tower. The asking prices combine for more than $18.2 million. With those prices as a reference base, the cost for all the units could exceed $600 million.

American Invsco, which originally converted the tower into condominiums, proposed buying the units in the tower last year, but who the investors are this time around was not clear. [Crain’s]Gregory Cornfield