JLL Completes Sale of 101 N. Wacker

CHICAGO—Foreign investment has been flowing into cities across the US, but Chicago remains one of the most popular with overseas investors. JLL, for example, has just completed the sale of the 24-story office tower at 101 N. Wacker Drive to LaSalle Investment Management on behalf of a European investor. According to Cook County records the price was $210 million. “Of the 10 buildings sold in downtown Chicago so far this year, five have now been purchased by off-shore investors, representing an investment of more than $845 million,” JLL officials say.

JLL international director Bruce Miller and senior vice president Nooshin Felsenthal handled the sale of the building on behalf of Houston-based Hines Interests LP, which had invested more than $12 million in recent years on improvements.

“Despite record-low yields, there continues to be fierce competition among both foreign and domestic investors for core office properties here,” Miller says. “Rising rents and increased absorption resulting from tenant migration into the CBD and a boom in the tech and creative sectors have made investors very bullish on Chicago.”

101 N. Wacker features easy access to both Metra and CTA trains as well as a variety of on-site amenities. Tenants lease about 90% of the 600,000-square-foot building.

“High-quality West Loop assets benefiting from transit-oriented, amenity-rich infill locations will continue outperforming the overall CBD market with strong tenant and investor demand,” adds David Schreiber, managing director of acquisitions at LaSalle. “101 N. Wacker offers tremendous value to tenants who require a prime Wacker address, but more modest rent.”

LaSalle has appointed JLL senior vice president Nikki Kern and associate Kim Doyle as the building's new exclusive leasing agents. JLL now leases a portfolio of 21 downtown Chicago office buildings totalling more than 16.5-million-square-feet.