A Chicago-based real estate firm has a deal to buy a loft office building known for its fishbowl-like front to serve as its headquarters amid expansion plans.
KWill Merchant Advisors has a contract to buy the three-story, 18,000-square-foot building at 661 W. Lake St., a building that hasn’t changed hands since the early 1980s, according to Hugh Williams, the firm’s managing member and chairman.
Several affiliated firms, including the KWill RE real estate advisory business, already use office space at the property. The sale, for just over $3 million, is expected to close by late October, Williams said.
Eclectic space matches the wide-ranging interests of its soon-to-be new owner. The longtime industrial broker’s career has included playing pro football in Paris, helping Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay expand relationships with minority-owned firms, and building real estate, construction materials and logistics businesses.
The firm’s name is a combination of Williams’ middle initial — his middle name is Kitson — and the first four letters of his last name.
The building is nestled along elevated Chicago Transit Authority train tracks, the Kennedy Expressway and an on-ramp. It is between the fast-expanding Fulton Market district and newly constructed skyscrapers along the Chicago River.
Despite its small size and tight surroundings, the brick-and-timber structure stands out because of the glassy, oval-shaped window and entryway.
“When we describe it, everyone knows the fishbowl building,” Williams said.
He jokingly refers to the building as Kwillis Tower, referring to the city’s tallest skyscraper, the 110-story Willis Tower.
The building at 661 W. Lake is fully leased, but owning the property allows the firm to be in control of long-term plans to expand beyond the approximately 20 workers from the firm now based there, Williams said.
KWill is expanding its New York office after opening there less than three years ago, and it’s looking for space in the Salt Lake City and Los Angeles markets now, he said.
“We’re definitely in growth mode,” Williams said. “I just want to build a really great, fun company that is Black-owned.”
The seller of 661 W. Lake is the French family, which lived in the building and ran the Modern Specialties Co. — a maker of industrial cutters, utility knives and other products — out of it starting in the early 1980s.
The company was sold and moved to Minnesota in recent years after the death of longtime company owner Robert Dean French. His widow, Gerissa French, lives in California, according to broker Fred Joosten of Chicago-based Sommerset Group. He was hired by a trustee to sell the building for the family.
Robert Dean French, a former naval commander, is responsible for adding unique features to the building including the nautical-themed entrance and a ramp to the basement where he once stored his motorcycles, Joosten said. The French family once lived on the third floor, Joosten said.
“It has been a great little building, and the sellers put a lot of their own personality into it,” Joosten said. “The owners live in California, and they can no longer treat this little building like the gem that it is. When KWill came along as a tenant in recent years, it made sense to talk about eventually owning the building. It’s a great deal for everybody.”
Williams said Kwill plans to add a rooftop deck and add murals to the building’s exterior.