The new owners of Chicago’s historic Clark Adams Building are picking up where the last ones left off — with an ambitious office-to-residential conversion — if they can get some public funding.
Chicago-based Primera Group and Bloomingdale investor Marc Calabria have purchased the office portion of the 41-story tower, at 105 West Adams Street, from a venture led by Old National Bank, Crain’s reported. The buyers paid $11 million, an anonymous source told the outlet. That would be $33 per square foot.
The purchase spans 330,000 square feet and encompasses the building’s first two floors and floors 11 through 41, excluding the separately owned Club Quarters hotel. The deal was brokered by Dan Hyman and Susan Silver of Millennium Properties R/E.
Primera Group, under the leadership of CEO Zach Waickman, aims to convert the historic structure into a primarily residential building with a focus on affordable rental units. Details regarding affordability and the number of apartments were not disclosed, but the intent is clear: to bring energy to the Loop amid changing work patterns and declining foot traffic.
Primera and Calabria are exploring taxpayer funding sources to assist in financing the conversion, a crucial step for moving forward and one that scuttled previous redevelopment plans.
A partnership between Celadon Partners and Blackwood Group previously aimed to transform the office building into 247 apartments primarily designated as affordable housing. Their proposal sought a $60 million TIF subsidy through the LaSalle Street Reimagined initiative but they faced challenges, and Old National relisted the building for sale.
Old National foreclosed on the property earlier this year, and the reported sale price represents a loss for the seller.
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The foreclosure was initiated in 2020 when First Midwest Bank, a predecessor of Old National, sued the former owner, a venture headed by Chicago investor Musa Tadros, alleging he failed to make mortgage payments.
Mayor Brandon Johson’s administration has pledged $151 million in TIF funds for office-to-residential conversions that could result in over 1,000 new apartments.
—Andrew Terrell