Chicago’s Sterling Bay Sells Site in Dallas’ Deep Ellum

Sterling Bay’s plans for a 450,000-square foot office building in Deep Ellum are over after the troubled developer sold the property.

The Chicago-based firm sold the 2.7-acre site, at 301 North Crowdus Street, to an entity called Dos Hombres Ventures, the Dallas Business Journal reported.

Davidson Bogel Real Estate’s Jake Milner, Bennett Sikes and Scott Lake brokered the sale and said the unidentified buyers have “creative redevelopment plans” but declined to provide details. The ownership entity has an address in the Lubbock suburb Wolfforth.

Sterling Bay planned to build a 13-story office building called The Assembly, a $100 million endeavor designed by Dallas’ HKS. It was originally slated to open by the end of 2024, but construction never started. A vacant office building that was once home to animation studio Reel FX still sits at the location.

A website for The Assembly shows office space, ground floor retail and amenities including “wellness” initiatives.

The sale is the latest offloading of real estate by Sterling Bay, which is facing significant challenges following delays on its planned Lincoln Yards megadevelopment in Chicago.

The firm listed a 1.56-acre parcel that’s entitled for a 355-unit residential project at 2033 North Kingsbury Street last month, and it has sold several other properties in Chicago. In March, it handed over control of a significant portion of the 53-acres that were slated for Lincoln Yards to lender Bank OZK via deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The deal, which gave Bank OZK 28 acres, settled Sterling Bay’s $126 million mortgage. The loan’s maturity had been extended several times, and the lender had written it down to $88 million by the end of last year.

Sterling Bay also recently sold a 47-story apartment tower in Chicago’s Loop to Cedar Street. And it listed a fully leased, 390,000-square-foot office tower at 311 West Monroe Street in Chicago ahead of its debt maturity.

— Eric Weilbacher