GTZ Buys Oak Brook Office Complex at Discount

GTZ Properties scooped up a flailing suburban Chicago office complex for a fraction of its prior value with plans for partial redevelopment.

The Highland Park-based firm paid just under $9 million for the four-building Oak Brook Office Center at 2707 Butterfield Road, Crain’s reported. The price was under $28 per square foot and 72 percent less than its last trade of $33 million in 2013.

The purchase resolves a foreclosure suit filed in 2022 against its previous owner, an affiliate of Adventus Realty Trust, over a $24 million defaulted loan. The sale wipes out Adventus’ equity and delivers a hit to bondholders on the CMBS loan, which carried an $18.2 million balance, according to CoStar.

The deal reflects the free fall of suburban office values amid rising interest rates and remote work. GTZ’s acquisition adds the 17-acre, 327,000-square-foot Oak Brook campus to a growing list of distressed properties being repositioned.

Mitch Goltz, GTZ’s managing principal, said the firm intends to preserve and revamp two of the four buildings for about 100,000 square feet of office use, while redeveloping the rest of the property into retail, entertainment or recreation space.

“There is no shortage of options when the real estate is as good as Oak Brook,” Goltz said, citing the site’s visibility and accessibility along Interstate 88.

The complex, which had fallen below 33 percent leased when it hit the market two years ago, is home to Olivet Nazarene University, which occupies over 23,000 square feet on a lease through next year. Goltz said he has nearly 30,000 square feet in new lease commitments.

Even relatively strong submarkets like Oak Brook face uphill battles attracting tenants; the area’s vacancy rate stood at 28.7 percent at the end of the first quarter compared to 32.2 percent across the broader Chicago suburbs, according to JLL.

GTZ will likely need rezoning approval from the Village of Oak Brook to convert the remaining 12 acres, which are zoned for office or light industrial.

— Judah Duke