Columbia Puts Johnson HQ on the Market

The neighborhood has become the center for both student and luxury housing.

CHICAGO—When John H. Johnson opened the South Loop headquarters of his publishing empire in 1972, the neighborhood was a lower-cost submarket a bit off the beaten path. Today, however, the 125,000-square-foot, 11-story property at 820 S. Michigan Ave. sits at the center of an area filling up with luxury residential towers and new student housing facilities. Increasing values in the neighborhood has raised expectations among Columbia College officials, who have decided to sell the property and use the proceeds to fund a new student center at 8^th and Wabash Ave.

Columbia purchased the building, where for decades Johnson published his iconic Ebony and Jet magazines, in 2010, but later found through a strategic planning process that retrofitting a vertical office building would not provide ideal working space for students. To market the property and complete a sale, the school has hired a Colliers International team consisting of David Burden, principal; Tim Hart, senior vice president; and Tyler Hague, vice president.