Beacon Capital Partners’ purchase of a 36-story office building along the curve of the Chicago River came at a loss to its longtime owner, but the high-profile deal may have helped clear a logjam of property sales in Chicago and other major cities.
The $125 million sale of the tower at 333 W. Wacker Drive was the highest-priced deal in downtown Chicago in more than two years, bringing a new owner to the structure known for its curved, blue-green exterior.
It came at a big loss to the owner, the pension fund of the AFL-CIO, which bought the tower for $320.5 million in 2015 as property values were soaring. The price also was far below the value of the $156 million loan issued by German’s Allianz Life Insurance in 2015.
But the discounted deal for a high-quality and recognizable corporate building created a key data point in Chicago as real estate buyers, lenders and sellers were trying to reset valuations amid challenges such as persisting remote work trends, higher borrowing costs, hesitant institutional investors and sluggish deal flow nationally.
The sale of 333 W. Wacker was followed a few months later by a wave of office property sales downtown.
Boston-based Beacon’s deal was selected by a panel of real estate professionals as the 2025 CoStar Impact Award sale/acquisition of the year.
About the project: This is the second time the firm has owned the building, after Beacon and partner John Buck sold it for $208 million in 2004. For the new deal, existing lender Allianz provided $185 million in new debt.
In buying the building, Beacon took on the responsibility of funding $32 million in improvements, including a renovated lobby and new amenities, that the previous owner agreed to as part of a long-term lease extension by the property’s largest tenant, Nuveen.
Designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Architects and completed in 1982, the tower is known for tinted exterior glass that reflects the river, sky and nearby skyscrapers on sunny days.
What the judges said: “Slowly unclogging the office market in Chicago and resetting basis (like at 333 W. Wacker) is an important step to solving the significant mismatch between office supply and demand," said Jane Acker of Farpoint Development.
They made it happen: The deal was led by Greg O’Neal of Beacon Capital Partners, the buyer. The sellers were represented by Cushman & Wakefield brokers Tom Sitz, Cody Hundertmark and Dan Deuter.