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Clayco buying prime Fulton Market property; redevelopment eyed
The 150K sf building is located outside of the area’s ban on new residential development
Clayco has agreed to pay $60 million for a food processing plant in Fulton Market, which it intends to redevelop amid the booming district, a source confirmed to The Real Deal.
The construction and development company will acquire the 156,000-square-foot plant from California-based Bridgford Foods at 170 North Green Street. The site is located outside of the area’s ban on new residential development, which could make it a prime property for apartment or condo construction. The site’s lot size spans 62,000 square feet.
Bridgford previously planned to redevelop the site into a mixed-use building with residential and retail space, and won the city’s approval in 2017, according to Crain’s, which first reported on the pending sale.
When Bridgford instead put the property on the market, it had hoped to maintain ownership of the land with a long-term ground lease deal. Clayco is purchasing the property outright, the source said.
The sale continues Bridgford’s recent history of unloading properties in Fulton Market, which has been at the epicenter of Chicago’s development boom. Nearly two years ago, it sold a small warehouse at 167 North Green Street, across the street from the food processing plant, to Shapack Partners and Focus Development for $6 million.
Shapack and Focus are building a 17-story office tower on the property. WeWork signed a lease to take 140,000 square feet of the building’s 750,000 square feet. The building is expected to open in mid-2021.
Bridgford plans to relocate its Chicago operations to a new facility that it’s building on the South Side.
A Clayco representative and CBRE’s Keely Polczynski, who is the listing agent for Bridgford, declined to comment. A Bridgford representative didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Last April, Clayco and Farpoint Development said they were teaming up on an Opportunity Zones venture, hoping to raise $1 billion for development projects “throughout America’s Heartland.” Clayco just missed TRD’s ranking in August of Chicago’s top construction firms.