- Spear Street Capital sold the 31-story, 651K SF tower at 225 W. Wacker Drive for just over $115M, 45% below the $210M it paid in May 2020.
- The building was 86% leased with a 6.5-year weighted average lease term when it hit the market in February, and Cushman & Wakefield is its largest tenant at more than 83K SF.
- Chicago office sales above 700K SF since 2024 have averaged a 71.4% discount, so this trade is a gentler reset, though Spear Street took a bigger loss on a March sale.
A 45% haircut is starting to look like a good outcome for Chicago office. Cushman & Wakefield’s global headquarters at 225 W. Wacker Drive changed hands for just over $115M, according to Bisnow, which cited Cook County property records.
Bisnow said an affiliate of Prime Finance bought the tower as a JV partner of Hines, and that tax documents label the trade a short sale.
Get Smarter about what matters in CRE
Stay ahead of trends in commercial real estate with CRE Daily – the free newsletter delivering everything you need to start your day in just 5-minutes
The Pricing Gap
Spear Street Capital had paid $210M for the 31-story building in May 2020, per Bisnow. It closed the sale on a Friday at a 45% markdown.
Chicago deals for towers over 700K SF since 2024 have averaged a 71.4% markdown.
What Was for Sale
Cushman & Wakefield began shopping the 651K SF tower in February, when it was 86% leased with a 6.5-year weighted average lease term.
The brokerage itself occupies over 83K SF as the largest tenant, and the typical lease in the building is around 18K SF.
Spear Street’s Rough Year
This was the milder of Spear Street’s recent exits. In March, according to Bisnow, it unloaded 500 W. Monroe St. for $100M, roughly three-quarters below the $412M paid in 2019.
Hines Keeps Buying
Hines has been busy in Chicago. Late last year it teamed with The Stahl Organization to buy Boeing’s leasehold in the former headquarters at 100 N. Riverside Plaza for $22M.
Zoom Out
Chicago’s office stress shows up in debt markets too. Our brief on CMBS distress shifting to Chicago used CRED iQ’s October data to show stress moving into Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston, with office 16.4% distressed.
Sales like this one are how that stress becomes a recorded loss.
On a per-foot basis, $115M for 651K SF works out to roughly $177 per SF, versus about $323 per SF in 2020.
Why It Matters
A tower that was mostly leased, with a recognized tenant and a 6.5-year lease term, cleared at a smaller discount than the market average. That suggests buyers pay more for in-place income and stable anchors.
Experienced operators teaming up on joint ventures are the ones stepping into Chicago deals.
What’s Next
Prime Finance and Hines now take on leasing and capital needs at the tower. Other large Chicago assets will show whether this pricing is a floor or an outlier.
Spear Street has now taken roughly $407M of combined price declines on the Wacker and Monroe sales, based on the figures.
