Sterling Bay Puts Lone Lincoln Yards Building on the Market

The only completed building at the long-stalled Lincoln Yards megadevelopment is up for sale, underscoring the site’s fractured future as a cast of players steps in with residential plans.

Sterling Bay, along with partners Harrison Street and J.P. Morgan Asset Management, has tapped Eastdil Secured and Savills to market the 284,000-square-foot building at 1229 West Concord Place, CoStar reported. The eight-story Gensler-designed property was delivered more than two years ago with high-end lab and office space, but it’s entirely vacant.

The lender that funded the building, Bank OZK, confirmed to The Real Deal that a loan on the building has a balance of $64.7 million and is in good standing with no write downs. That loan reaches maturity next month.

The move marks another twist in the saga of Lincoln Yards, the $6 billion vision Sterling Bay unveiled more than six years ago for 50-plus acres along the North Branch of the Chicago River. The city signed off on zoning that would allow 14.5 million square feet of development and towers topping 500 feet, but little has materialized beyond 1229 West Concord Place. The pandemic, spiking construction and borrowing costs, and heavy infrastructure obligations left the project stalled.

Now, the land is effectively being split. JDL Development and Florida-based Kayne Anderson have agreed to acquire the northern 31 acres from Bank OZK, which seized the site from Sterling Bay’s partner Lone Star Funds. JDL and Kayne are rebranding their portion as Foundry Park, with plans for as many as 3,000 homes spanning single-family, condos and rentals. Meanwhile, the southern portion’s future is murkier, with the Concord building hitting the market and Sterling Bay separately shopping land nearby, including a Kingsbury Street parcel entitled for a 355-unit apartment project.

Brokers are pitching the Concord property as a discount buy relative to replacement cost, with a mix of lab infrastructure and “hospitality-caliber” amenities such as a fitness center, outdoor terrace, and riverfront patio. While designed for life sciences, they argue it could easily serve as high-end office space at a time when brand-new inventory is scarce.

Whether that sales pitch resonates remains to be seen. The building today overlooks empty land, though nearby restaurants, bars and retail are expected once JDL’s residential buildout begins. For now, it stands as a glassy reminder of Sterling Bay’s stalled ambitions — and a test of whether buyers see value in a trophy building without a neighborhood around it.

— Eric Weilbacher