L3 Capital Reportedly Scooping up Palmolive Building Retail

L3 Capital, who primarily works with Gold Coast retail property, is purchasing property in the Palmolive Building.

The Chicago-based company will be purchasing the Louis Vuitton store amongst other retail space at the base of the tower known as the Playboy Building, according to CoStar, who cited anonymous sources. 919 North Michigan Avenue gained the moniker because Playboy Magazine offices were stationed there from 1965 to around 1990, and the featured “Playboy” emblazoned on both sides of the building in lights.

The outlet didn’t list a sale price for the retail space that will also lose New York-based jeweler David Yurman to Rush Street, who signed a lease for 933 North Rush Street earlier this year.

The investment arm of TIAA, Chicago-based Nuveen, has been looking to offload the 51,795 square feet of space. They paid $90 million for the property in 2012, according to the outlet. The luxury residential portion of the 37-story Art Deco tower sits above the retail space.

L3 has been one of the drivers of transformation in Gold Coast. They bought a building that used to be a branch of Wintrust Bank at a discount, transformed it into a store for Kim Kardashian’s Skims brand, and are now quickly looking to sell it. CBRE has the listing for the 6,500-square-foot property at 1000 North Rush Street. The move highlights Gold Coast’s shift away from exclusivity towards more accessible luxury brands in some areas, from Cartier to items under a hundred bucks.

Across Magnificent Mile, retail space appears to be rebounding from the pandemic-era market crash. The former John Hancock Center is having 400,000 square feet of medical office space redeveloped into a Marriott International Edition-branded hotel. MetLife is dropping $170 million on Water Tower Place, turning the devastation from a retail exodus into office space. Retailers such as American Eagle, Japanese apparel company Uniqlo and the Candy Hall of Fame are all set to move into space on North Michigan Avenue.
— Hunter Cooke