September 30, 2022

Loop office building goes up for sale for $7.6 million

Greenstone Partners, a commercial real estate brokerage, has listed 73 W. Monroe for $7.6 million. Considered a boutique office building, the 53,000-square foot site’s first floor is leased through 2026 by Pret A Manager, although the French fast-casual restaurant has vacated the space, according to Greenstone Partners’ Managing Partner Jason St. John.

The lower level, second, third, fourth and fifth floors are home to national coworking tenant Expansive, which has more than 34,000 square feet in a longterm, 10-year lease with 3% annual escalations.

St. John envisions the listing being attractive to not only investors but possible occupants as well. The deal comes with a one-way termination option by the landlord, meaning that the landlord has the option to terminate the tenants on a floor-by-floor basis.

“What’s nice about this as an investor is that you can buy a building with cash flow,” St. John explained to the Chicago Business Journal. “For the companies that want to own their own building but only need around 6,000 to 12,000 square feet of office space, they have ability to come into the building, occupy one or two floors, and then cash flow the rest of the building to help with their mortgage.”

The floor plates are around 7,000 square feet, perfectly matching market demand, he said.

“What we’re seeing in the market are a lot of tenants that are going from 30,000 or 40,000 square feet, that are downsizing to 5,000 to 10,000 square feet, so I think this building has a great opportunity to capture those tenants,” St. John said. “The Loop has definitely experienced turmoil since the pandemic. If you look at history, The Loop has been a pillar of our of our office market and you have the ability to buy a building here at between half to a third of what you would be paying in Fulton Market.” St. John added that the owner of the building next door, 79 W. Monroe, a 180,000-square-foot office building, recently sold around 100,000 square feet [the first six floors] of it to a New York investment group for around $400 per square foot.

“We’re offering $142 per square foot,” he said. St. John remains confident in the Loop’s rebound moving forward, especially when companies like Google are willing to commit to it.

“If one of the largest market-cap companies is willing to bet on the Loop and that location long term, makes me feel really good about the future,” he said.