Archer-Daniels-Midland CEO Juan Luciano doubles down in Chicago’s One Bennett Park

It wasn’t enough for Juan Luciano to drop nearly $6 million for a luxe condo in Chicago’s Streeterville. Now he’s sunk $1.85 million more for a second unit 15 floors below.

The chairman and CEO of Archer-Daniels-Midland and his wife, Carolina, bought a 46th-floor condo at One Bennett Park at 451 East Grand Avenue, the Chicago Tribune reported. 

The purchase comes a year after they paid $5.72 million last March for a three-bedroom, 4,800-square-foot unit on the 61st floor.

The first half-floor condominium has sweeping views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline. The second perch below will offer a closer look of nearby Navy Pier.

One Bennett Park, a 70-story tower designed by New York-based Robert A.M. Stern, has 279 apartments topped by 69 condos. But properties at the 1.7-acre Art Deco-inspired highrise developed in 2019 by Related Midwest, the Chicago office of New York-based Related Companies, have been slow to sell.

The developer sold 13 units last year, including a three-bedroom, four-bathroom unit that traded in July for $4 million, down $700,000 from its initial asking price. In March 2020, a 4,800-square-foot condo on the 63rd floor fetched $6.25 million. The Lucianos’ purchase last year, however, was a resale of a unit the developer had already sold, according to the Tribune.

Juan Luciano, native of Argentina, was named CEO at ADM in 2015 and appointed chairman the following year. He previously had worked at Dow Chemical.

Luciano joined a record number of Chicago-area CEOs making $20 million or more in 2021, with compensation of $23.5 million, according to Crain’s.

He and his wife have been on a condominium buying spree across the Near North Side 

The Lucianos paid $1.61 million in 2013 for a 19th-floor condo in a highrise near their latest purchase, then paid $810,000 the following year for another 19th-floor unit in that building. In 2018, they paid $1.51 million for a 27th-floor condo in the same tower. 

They continue to own all three units, which brings their Streeterville holdings to five homes, one for each working day of the week.

— Dana Bartholomew