Discovery Partners Institute Eyes Buying Wacker Drive Office

A University of Illinois-led research hub is poised to become the latest buyer of a distressed Loop office building, striking a deal to acquire a 16-story building along the Chicago River for roughly $25 million.

Discovery Partners Institute is under contract to buy the 1950s-era property at 250 South Wacker Drive from UBS, according to people familiar with the deal and first reported by CoStar. The agreement comes years after the seller, then Credit Suisse, paid about $90 million for the 259,400-square-foot building in 2011. UBS, which absorbed Credit Suisse in its 2024 rescue merger, is represented by CBRE broker David Knapp. The bank declined to comment.

The building is largely empty after Molson Coors Brewing Company agreed to relocate its Americas headquarters from most of the property — a 167,000-square-foot space — in 2023 to the newly-built BMO Tower across the river. That move left 250 South Wacker Drive struggling to fill space, according to the publication. If the deal closes, it would add to a growing list of Chicago office buildings trading at deep discounts, particularly those built decades ago and saddled with vacancies.

What Discovery Partners Institute plans to do with the building remains unclear. The institute currently leases space next door at 200 South Wacker Drive and has been searching for a permanent home since its launch. The University of Illinois System confirmed that its board authorized moving forward with a building purchase but declined to share details while the transaction is pending.

Discovery Partners focuses on artificial intelligence and quantum computing. For years, the institute was slated to anchor a domed facility within Related Midwest’s 62-acre The 78 megadevelopment, according to the CoStar, but that vision unraveled late last year, when Governor JB Pritzker and state officials announced the institute would no longer move forward at the site, which is also slated for a new Chicago Fire soccer stadium.

Instead, state leaders have pointed to a sprawling quantum computing campus rising on the former U.S. Steel South Works site as the institute’s long-term ecosystem. Construction there is already underway, with tenants like Israel-based Quantum Machines signing on.

— Eric Weilbacher