The former home of Ebony and Jet magazines is on the market for sale a few years after the 11-story building overlooking Chicago’s Grant Park was converted to 150 apartments.
JLL brokers are marketing the multifamily property at 820 S. Michigan Ave., former home of influential Black publisher Johnson Publishing, according to marketing materials.
The Chicago landmark was sold to Columbia College amid Johnson Publishing’s financial struggles in 2010, but the college later decided against using the structure as part of its nearby campus. Instead, the developers bought it in 2017 and began the conversion to residential.
Johnson Publishing, at one time, was one of the largest Black-owned businesses in the United States, led by John H. Johnson. In 1982, the media mogul was the first Black person named to Forbes magazine’s list of America’s 400 richest people.
The building where Johnson ran his publishing empire for decades is going on the market less than five years after local developer 3L Real Estate and its investment partner, an affiliate of Argosy Real Estate Partners, converted the former office building into apartments.
The conversion, completed in late 2019, cost $37 million, according to 3L Real Estate’s website. It’s unclear how much they’re expecting in a sale amid high interest rates and other challenges that have weighed down the investment sales market nationally.
Rosemont, Illinois-based 3L Real Estate and Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Argosy Real Estate Partners did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CoStar News on Tuesday.
The building still has some reminders of its publishing past, including the well-known Ebony and Jet sign just over what is now a rooftop deck for tenants. Wood paneling and framed magazines are among other reminders in the lobby.
A 10th-floor Ebony test kitchen was sold for $1 to Landmarks Illinois during the rehab of the building.
Built in 1971, the building’s units are 99% leased, according to JLL, and there is a Go Grocer store on the ground floor. Residential units range from studios to three bedrooms.
Johnson Publishing filed for bankruptcy in 2019, and its photo archives were sold and moved to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C., and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.
Former NBA player Ulysses Lee "Junior" Bridgeman purchased the company for $14 million in 2020. Ebony currently publishes online.
For the Record
JLL brokers David Gaines and Bill Baumann are representing the sellers.