Marc Realty eyes office-to-resi conversion for Loop tower

Asset expected to fetch around $30M

Marc Realty's Jerry Nudo with 180 North Michigan (Cambridge Realty Capital Companies, Google Maps, Getty)
Marc Realty's Jerry Nudo with 180 North Michigan (Cambridge Realty Capital Companies, Google Maps, Getty)

Larry Weiner’s Marc Realty is looking to sell one of its Central Loop office towers to a multifamily or hotel developer, indicating a pivot for the longtime office landlord.

The Chicago-based commercial firm hired CBRE to market 180 North Michigan Avenue, the 24-story 235,0000-square-foot Class B building that is leased by the American Writers Museum and the embassies of Spain and Peru, with retail on the ground floor.

The listing doesn’t include a price, though it is expected to sell for around $30 million, according to a source familiar with the offering. Marc bought the property for slightly more than $20 million in 2007, Crain’s reported at the time.

Marc did not respond to a request for comment.

The firm is marketing the building as a good candidate for a conversion in Chicago’s pandemic-battered downtown office market, which has a record amount of available office space. If redeveloped, the building will fit in with its neighbors, which include a handful of hotels and apartment towers.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Marc’s portfolio includes more than 40 office properties that the firm manages and leases, mainly in downtown Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.

Marc sold a vacant office building in suburban Rolling Meadows for $13 million in May, two-thirds more than what it fetched in 2016.

Weiner’s firm is also facing a potential foreclosure. A $16.5 million loan on the 10-story building at 216 West Jackson Boulevard was transferred to a special servicer in July.

Chicago’s central business district saw negative absorption in the fourth quarter of 2022, falling to -600,000 square feet, according to a report from Chicago-based commercial real estate firm Bradford Allen. Direct vacancy increased to nearly 19 percent, the report also shows.

Read more