Chicago’s restrictive lending environment is finally starting to ease up.
A look at Cook County’s biggest commercial loans in 2025 shows mega-lenders moving away from their pandemic-era reliance on the industrial sector and embracing a variety of property types, according to data compiled by The Real Deal.
After interest rates began to rise in 2022, lenders tightened their pursestrings and Chicago felt the pain acutely. While many cities saw financing slow down, Chicago also dealt with negative perceptions from lenders tied to its unpredictable property tax environment and progressive city council.
But constraints on developers put pressure on Chicago’s existing multifamily supply, driving rents up more rapidly than the rest of the country. As a result, the multifamily market heated up this year and buyers and owners started to score appealing debt packages from lenders.
Meanwhile, top-tier office developments reaped the benefits of forging ahead during the coronavirus crisis. The city’s top two commercial loans of the year were both office loans that came in over $600 million and were sold off on the bond market.
The top contenders in 2025 contrast last year’s biggest commercial loans getting bolstered by data center developments, with the priciest debt package below $300 million. Though data center and industrial projects still secured financing in Cook County this year, the heftiest deals were part of larger portfolios that spanned the country.
Bank of America tower | $700 million
While many of Chicago’s office landlords were fighting for survival, the owners of the Bank of America Tower bucked trends and scored a $700 million refinancing in November.
The refinancing was led by JPMorgan Chase and also included debt from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and BMO, according to a statement from the borrowers. It was then repackaged and sold off on the bond market.
The transaction stands out in a city where few investors have been willing to touch office paper.
The tower’s owners are a joint venture of Oak Hill Advisors, Callahan Capital Partners and Affinius Capital. The move marks the largest office-backed bond offering in Chicago since the pandemic, a sign that commercial mortgage-backed securities buyers will still write checks for top-tier assets.
The 57-story building at 110 North Wacker Drive is 98 percent leased, with Bank of America anchoring 17 floors and contributing roughly a third of total rent, according to bond documents.
Its riverfront site and proximity to Union Station and Ogilvie Transportation Center have kept it competitive, and its slate of amenities — including restaurants from celebrity chefs such as José Andrés — gives it the kind of hospitality edge landlords now need to draw tenants.
The refinancing replaces a loan held by a group of banks and landed at a moment when a small drop in interest rates started to thaw capital markets.
Salesforce Tower | $610 million
The owners of Salesforce Tower on the bank of the Chicago River secured a $610 million long-term debt deal in March, marking a milestone in the aftermath of Chicago’s pandemic-stricken economy.
The property was developed by a political powerhouse’s family office in the Kennedys, as well as Hines and the AFL-CIO’s real estate investment arm. It stands as a contrarian bet that worked out amid economic uncertainty.
The refinancing package, with Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs serving as the lenders, replaced the property’s $549 million construction debt and is projected to carry an interest rate of 6.525 percent until its maturity in March 2030.
Conceived during the early days of the pandemic, Salesforce Tower has upended market trends by maintaining high occupancy levels, with leases covering over 95 percent of its 1.2 million square feet. Key tenants include Salesforce, which rents more than 477,000 square feet, and Kirkland & Ellis, which is on a 677,000-square-foot lease; those deals run into the 2040s.
Kirkland has poured over $207 million beyond its tenant-improvement allowance to create its ideal workspaces, while Salesforce has put up an additional $78 million for its interior buildout, the Moody’s report on the new loan showed.
167 North Green | $247 million
A venture of Shapack Partners, Tim Anderson’s Focus Development and Neil Bluhm’s Walton Street Capital secured a $247 million refinancing for the largest office building in Fulton Market, in another win for downtown office owners.
The venture closed in July on a five-year, interest-only loan backed by 167 North Green Street, according to a presale report from ratings agency KBRA.
The deal paid off a $232 million Deutsche Bank loan from 2021, giving the group breathing room until interest rates settle and the office market stabilizes. The refinancing amounts to $387 per square foot.
The 17-story, 638,800-square-foot building was nearly 92 percent leased at the time of the refinancing compared to 73 percent for downtown Chicago overall. It was appraised at $370 million, or $570 per square foot, this year according to KBRA.
Tenants include CCC Intelligent Solutions, which leases more than 140,000 square feet through 2037. MoLo Solutions signed for roughly 94,000 square feet through 2034 but has marketed some space for sublease. WeWork still occupies over 93,000 square feet, keeping its lease intact after filing for bankruptcy in 2023. Virginia-based consulting firm Guidehouse subleased nearly 47,000 square feet in the building from Kroll in February.
The Row | $212 million
A luxury high-rise in Fulton Market developed by Related Midwest nabbed a $212 million refinancing from Mizuho Financial Group two years after opening. The refinancing signaled the strength of both the Fulton Market neighborhood and Chicago’s multifamily market in general.
Related built The Row at 164 North Peoria Street with a $164 million construction loan issued by the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. Additional expenses likely added to the total development cost.
The 43-story, 300-unit tower opened in 2023 and features a rooftop pool, coworking space and other luxury amenities. About 20 percent of the units in the building were set aside as affordable to comply with the city’s affordable housing requirements.
Market rate rents range from $4,000 per month to upwards of $10,000 per month for penthouse-style residences.
Marshall Field Garden Apartments | $192 million
A historic affordable housing complex secured a $192 million refinancing deal in May, indicating its value has grown since owner Related Midwest took over in 2016.
The Marshall Field Garden Apartments, which consist of a sprawling complex of 10 buildings totaling 628 units, were originally built by the estate of department store magnate Marshall Fields in 1929.
The estate’s goal was to maintain the property as affordable housing. Since then, the Old Town property has cycled through two private owners, both of which agreed to maintaining below-market rents.
Related Midwest bought The Marshall Field Garden Apartments in 2016 with an agreement to maintain their affordability until 2045. The company spent $175 million on upgrades to the property and most recently refinanced it with Chicago’s fifth-biggest loan of 2025.
The Renaissance Chicago Hotel | $165 million
The only hotel to make Chicago’s list of top commercial loans in 2025, The Renaissance Chicago Downtown received a $165 million refinancing from Citibank.
The riverfront hotel at 1 West Wacker Drive underwent extensive renovations in 2013.
Carey Watermark Investors Inc. bought the 553-room hotel for $139 million and planned to pour $27 million into rehabbing it. Since then, the hospitality industry took a hit during the pandemic, hampering many investors’ abilities to sell or secure financing.
But this year, the Democratic National Convention, and other marquee events like the Lollapalooza music festival and NASCAR race, drove record demand for downtown hotel rooms.
The city’s overall hotel revenue generated in June, July and August totaled nearly $950 million and set a record for the central business district.
Grand Plaza | $160 million
Morgan Stanley originated a $160 million loan for the 481-unit apartment tower called Grand Plaza, at 540 North State Street in March. The property is owned by an LLC led by New York-based investor Teresa Tsai and several other investors.
Even after scoring the loan, however, Tsai faced a $16 million shortfall from the property’s previous debt, a $186 million mortgage taken out in 2014, property records show. It’s unclear how Tsai closed the gap — she could have paid out of pocket or raised the money from another investor in exchange for a piece of the property’s equity.
Regardless, landing a CMBS deal on relatively favorable terms was a strong sign for Chicago’s apartment market.
The new Grand Plaza loan, $93 million of which was set to be sold in a CMBS package, marked the largest deal in the offering, which totals more than $934 million across 40 loans, according to KBRA.
Grand Plaza was appraised at $241 million during the loan underwriting process. The debt comes with a five-year term and requires only the interest to be paid until its maturity, when the principal becomes fully due, according to a KBRA analysis. The estimated property value was down nearly 20 percent from its 2014 appraisal of $300 million.
The Tsai venture bought the property — along with a huge parking garage and 100,000-square-foot retail assets connected to the complex — for $265 million in 2007. It then refinanced with the $186 million loan in 2014, but appeared to only use the apartment tower as collateral, allowing the retail and parking assets to operate debt-free, property records show.
In the first nine months of 2024, Grand Plaza brought in $19 million in revenue and $9.2 million in net cash flow, after accounting for its operating expenses, according to loan data compiled by Morningstar Credit.
370 North Morgan | $151 million
Vista Properties scored $173 million in financing to begin construction work on an apartment tower in Fulton Market in May.
The funds come from a $151 million construction loan from CIBC and a $22 million preferred equity investment from PGIM Real Estate. The financing equates to $350,000 per unit. Cushman & Wakefield represented Vista in securing the CIBC loan.
The 31-story tower will include 494 units and over 45,000 square feet of amenities. It is replacing the former Fox Deluxe Foods building at 370 North Morgan Street and is expected to be completed in the Spring of 2027.
Chicago-based Skender is the general contractor, and Antunovich Associates designed the building. DeSimone is the structural engineer.
1475 North Kingsbury Street | $135 million
The team behind a Lincoln Park apartment high-rise secured a $135 million refinancing from Rialto Capital Advisors in June.
A joint venture made up of Cleveland-based PCP Generational Partners, Chicago-based Structured Development and White Oak Realty Partners finished construction on the 327-unit development at 1475 North Kingsbury Street in late 2023. The refinancing worked out to $412,000 per unit.
The ownership venture took out a $89 million construction loan to fund the 27-story project in 2022. It was the last multifamily tower to be completed as a part of a broader, $250 million mixed-used development called Wendelin Park, previously known as The Shops At Big Deahl.
The development is bordered by Kingsbury Street to the west and Dayton Street to the east, and bound by Blackhawk Street to the north and Eastman Street to the south.
Other buildings included in the project are The Seng, a 34-unit affordable condo development and Post Chicago, a 126-unit apartment building. At The Post, 107 units are co-living spaces, and the remaining 19 units are standard apartments. The properties surround a park that was built by the developers but is open to the public. On the east end of the development, the venture built a climbing gym known as Movement Lincoln Park.
The Residences at Arlington Heights | $134 million
In an early sign that Chicago’s multifamily market was going to have a strong showing for the year, the owners of The Residences at Arlington Heights secured a $134 million refinancing in February.
Los Angeles-based JRK Property Holdings bought the massive 838-unit suburban complex formerly known as The Tanglewood Apartments in 2014 for $78 million with a $65 million loan from Walker & Dunlop.
The Residences at Arlington have gotten more than $20 million in renovations under JRK Property’s ownership.
Not long after the refinancing, JRK listed the property for sale. At the time the listing went public in July, the complex was fully leased. Marketing materials listed an average monthly rent of about $1,500, or $2 per square foot.