A huge office property in Chicago’s River North is for sale after Blackstone Group was unable to arrange new financing when its $310 million loan matured in July, adding a property to the market amid a drought for office sales in the city.
JLL brokers are marketing the more than 1.3 million-square-foot property at 350 N. Orleans St. for sale, according to materials from the Chicago-based brokerage.
That comes almost four months after Blackstone’s $310 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan matured, according to loan reports.
It’s the latest Chicago office property headed toward a sale at a big discount to its previous sale price, if it can sell at all at a time when rising interest rates and other economic challenges have slowed real estate deals of all types throughout the country.
There hasn’t been a downtown Chicago office sale of more than $50 million since July 2022.
Other Chicago offices that have been surrendered by their owners or are otherwise expected to sell at a big discount include the Chicago Board of Trade Building, the Civic Opera Building and 150 N. Michigan Ave.
New York-based Blackstone, one of the world’s biggest real estate owners, has been bracing for a while for a huge loss on its 350 N. Orleans investment.
The CMBS loan was transferred to special servicing in the spring after ownership’s “written confirmation that they would be unable to pay amounts owed under loan,” according to CoStar loan commentary.
“The property is experiencing the well-known headwinds facing U.S. traditional office buildings lacking first class modern amenities and this location in the River North submarket has been particularly challenging, which is why we effectively wrote this investment down to zero last year," a Blackstone spokesperson said in an email to CoStar News.
The special servicer of the loan, Wells Fargo Bank, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoStar News on Monday.
Blackstone’s EQ Office division, based in Chicago, owns well-known properties throughout the country including the 110-story Willis Tower in Chicago, Nashville’s Fifth Third Center, U.S. Bank Center in Seattle and the Playa District complex in Los Angeles.
But Blackstone has focused more heavily on other types of real estate in recent years.
“We aim to invest in sectors with strong fundamentals propelled by macro demand trends, which is why the majority of the real estate we own is in sectors like logistics, student housing and data centers and why less than 2% of our owned portfolio is traditional U.S. office,” the spokesperson said in the email.
Blackstone bought 350 N. Orleans for $378 million in 2015. Blackstone later replaced a smaller loan with the $310 million loan in securitized debt originated by Goldman Sachs in 2018, according to Cook County property records and loan reports. At the time it was refinanced, during a much stronger real estate market, the property’s appraised value was $489 million.
More Than One-Third Vacant
The value likely has plunged far below the loan balance today because of soft demand for office space nationally, as more people work remote or hybrid office schedules.
About 65% of the space in the property, which includes connected towers of 13 and 23 stories, is occupied, according to JLL.
That provides a major leasing challenge amid historically low demand for U.S. office space, but JLL is positioning it as an opportunity for upside for a buyer that could acquire it at a big discount to previous sales and to the cost it would cost to build today.
Previously known as the Apparel Center and River North Point, 350 North Orleans is next to the sprawling Merchandise Mart along the north side of the Chicago River. The Mart is owned by Vornado Realty Trust.
The Orleans offering does not include a separately owned, 522-room Voco Chicago Downtown & Holiday Inn dual-branded hotel on floors 14 to 23 of the south tower.
Completed in 1977, the property is just over 65% occupied with a weighted average lease term of 4.5 years, according to the JLL materials. Amenities include a tenant lounge, conference and fitness centers and third-floor roof deck.
The previous owner invested $54 million in capital improvements in the three years before Blackstone bought it, the JLL materials say. Blackstone invested another $104 million in upgrades including new amenities in a project completed in 2020, according to JLL.
Vacant space includes a 195,866-square-foot contiguous block on upper floors.
For the Record
JLL brokers Jaime Fink, Patrick Shields, Bruce Miller, Sam DiFrancesca and Misha Katashevich are marketing the building for sale.