Chicago Tribune Tower Retail Space Changes Hands

The ground-floor of one of Chicago’s most famous buildings just sold, and the buyer thinks foot traffic is coming back.

Chicago-based North American Real Estate acquired the retail portion of the iconic Tribune Tower, the first time the ground-floor space of the 36-story neo-Gothic landmark has been sold as a retail-only property, CoStar reported.

The sale price was not disclosed and has not yet appeared in public records. Brokers at Eastdil Secured began marketing the 47,000-square-foot space at 435 North Michigan Avenue early this year on behalf of sellers CIM Group and Golub & Company, which bought the tower in 2016 for $240 million to convert most of it into condos. The newspaper moved out in 2018.

North American Real Estate principal Savas Er said the Michigan Avenue corridor is showing signs of recovery and his firm sees opportunity in filling out the 64 percent vacant retail portion with a mix of smaller tenants along the pedestrian-heavy Pioneer Court plaza, and larger tenants along the avenue. Tenants include the Museum of Ice Cream, Blue Bottle Coffee and luxury watch retailer A. Lange & Söhne.

“There are not many small-shop spaces available on Michigan Avenue,” Er said. “We purchased at a good basis, so we have an advantage in filling the vacancies.”

North American Real Estate has been active buying discounted retail properties across the city, including a Lakeview shopping center on Clark Street and the Flat Iron Arts Building in Wicker Park. Last year, it paid $47 million for an office and retail building just north of Tribune Tower, less than half its 2016 sale price, a reflection of broader challenges on the Magnificent Mile, where vacancies have climbed and owners have cut asking rents to attract tenants.

But new leases and attraction openings, including a large Harry Potter store and Spanish retailer Mango’s North Michigan Avenue debut, point to a modest retail rebound.

The Tribune Tower’s façade famously incorporates fragments from dozens of historical sites around the world, including the Parthenon, the Taj Mahal and the Berlin Wall. The tower itself was built after a 1922 international design competition, won by architects John Howells and Raymond Hood, to commemorate the Chicago Tribune’s 75th anniversary.

— Judah Duke