January 5, 2022

Fulton Market Was A Standout In A Slow Year For Office Sales

Fulton Market looked like it was in big trouble when the pandemic swept Chicago in 2020. Office developers were just putting the finishing touches on millions of SF, most of which sat empty that year, sending vacancy in the new submarket to more than 33% in early 2021. Vacancy is still elevated but now stands at 26.2%, and Fulton Market was the only downtown submarket to see positive absorption last year, according to a Q4 report by MB Real Estate.

Investors seem to like the neighborhood’s long-term prospects. Other than the state of Illinois purchasing 555 West Monroe St. for $73M to fulfill its plan to consolidate several government offices in the city, there was only one significant downtown office sale in Q1, according to Colliers International. That was New York-based Vista Property Group’s $32M purchase from MAB Capital Management of 400 and 401 North Morgan St., a pair of Fulton Market sites with a total of 83K SF of leasable space, along with a plot of vacant land.

The property is one block north of 1KFulton, the 531K SF old cold storage building at 1000 West Fulton St. transformed by Sterling Bay in 2015 into a gleaming regional headquarters for Google. Vista plans to hold onto its vacant land on Morgan Street and wait for the right redevelopment opportunity.

“They believe the land around the property will eventually get filled,” Greenstone Partners CEO Danny Spitz told Bisnow.

Greenstone represented Vista in the transaction.