Loop Office Deals Highlight Split Between Trophies and Vintage

A combined $755 million in Chicago office transactions closed Tuesday shows trophy assets still commanding big-league valuations while older towers push deeper into distressed territory.

Owners of the Bank of America Tower locked in the headline move, completing a $700 million refinancing on the 55-story riverfront skyscraper at 110 North Wacker Drive. Built in 2020, the roughly 1.5 million-square-foot property was recently appraised at just over $1 billion, CoStar reported.

The contrast came a few blocks south, where Namdar Realty Group and Mason Asset Management closed on 190 South LaSalle Street, a 40-story postmodern tower designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee and built in 1987. The Great Neck, New York-based firms, known for scooping up distressed assets nationwide, paid about $55 million — that’s about $69 per square foot, people familiar with the deal told the outlet — a fraction of the $230 million Beacon Capital Partners spent on the 798,000-square-foot building in 2019.

Beacon’s exit from 190 South LaSalle marks a steep plunge from the tower’s pre-pandemic financing. The sale price sits far below the $167.5 million loan Beacon took out in February 2020. U.S. Bank, the lender and a tenant in the high-vacancy building, declined to comment, as did the buyers and Beacon. The sale was brokered by Cushman and Wakefield’s Cody Hundermark and Tom Sitz.

Meanwhile, Callahan Capital Partners and Oak Hill Advisors touted the refinancing of Bank of America Tower as evidence that capital markets still reward best-in-class assets. Since buying the controlling interest in 2022, the owners have pushed occupancy from 78 percent to 98 percent, helping secure one of Chicago’s largest post-pandemic office financings. Only the Old Post Office and Salesforce Tower have landed bigger CMBS deals in recent years.

Riverfront skyscrapers and newer top-tier offices have kept reeling in the city’s highest rents and biggest loans, while aging towers struggle with vacancies, debt loads and changing tenant preferences. It’s a pattern playing out in other major U.S. markets too, where trophy buildings continue to attract capital even as older stock trades at liquidation prices.

Some Chicago real estate pros see opportunity in the discount era. More trades at reset values, they argue, could draw in buyers with lower cost bases capable of competing for leases, ultimately adding liquidity to the market in 2026 and beyond. Namdar and Mason fit that profile: the pair have already snapped up 70 West Madison and One North LaSalle through similar distressed asset moves.

— Eric Weilbacher