Adjacent loft buildings in Chicago’s hot West Loop hit the market at a combined $21.7 million this week, far exceeding the value of recent mortgages backed by either of the properties.
The buildings, which hold recording and fitness studio businesses, including the Chicago Music Garage, where artists like Sting and Chance the Rapper have recorded, are at 345 North Loomis Street and 350 North Ogden Street, according to Greenstone Partners, the brokerage marketing the properties. They’re billed as potential redevelopment opportunities.
With each property’s listing price exceeding the value of mortgages taken out in the last three years, their owners are looking to cash in as new commercial development in the Fulton Market District just east of the sites has become Chicago’s most resilient office submarket during the pandemic as vacancies rose in the central Loop.
“Conceptually, we see the endless opportunities these properties would convey to ownership by surveying the neighborhood success stories surrounding them,” said Greenstone’s Danny Spitz.
West Loop property owners are scrambling to get into the area as land values rise, driven by Fulton Market landlords adding office tenants and luring multifamily development to the wider neighborhood. There are 9,000 units in various stages of planning set to further transform the area once home to industrial businesses.
The North Ogden property contains more than 78,000 rentable square feet and its owner, a trust managed by Albany Bank and Trust, is asking $11.9 million. If it fetches that amount, the deal would be for double the value of a 2021 mortgage on the property for up to $5.5 million, according to a Cook County record showing the owner could borrow up to that amount and has already been loaned $2.5 million.
It’s partially occupied and “represents a blank canvas option for investors interested in establishing their own value enhancement vision,” Spitz said.
The Loomis property is fully occupied and home to the recording studio. It holds more than 60,700 rentable square feet and its owner, a business entity registered to Scott D. Spector, is asking $9.8 million. That property was given a mortgage totaling $4.5 million in 2019, public records show. Attempts to reach its ownership were not successful.
The Loomis real estate offers its buyer the chance to “purchase the building along with the successful music studio business as a bundle [with the Ogden property] or an investor can solely purchase the property,” Spitz said.
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