Mercantile Financial Center, LLC paid $16.7 million for the 230,064-sf building at 250 S. Wacker Dr. last year from another limited liability corporation. Mercantile Financial Center, LLC is renovating the building's facade, replacing windows, adding terrazzo flooring in the lobby as well as a fitness center in an attempt to lift the their property from class C to class A status. They plan to sell office-condominiums ranging from 2,841 sf to 18,114 sf at prices starting at $221 per sf. In addition to office-condominiums, the renovated building will include 15,348 sf of ground-floor retail space, which can be divided into two or three units.

Plans by local developers Charles Podczerwinski and Denice Gierach call for 14 buildings, ranging from 5,000 sf, with units ranging from 1,200 sf to 7,000 sf. An existing 26,000-sf building will be renovated. Grubb & Ellis senior vice president Michael Fortuna and associate Brett Ratay will handle sales of the office-condominiums.

In a recent report on the office-condominium phenomenon, Grubb & Ellis national director of market analysis Robert Bach and PNC Real Estate Finance senior analyst Elizabeth Ptacek noted the concept is in nascent states in Downtown Chicago. Nine buildings totaling one million sf are going to the office-condominium concept, they report, but only one of them is 100% sold. Recently launched projects include conversion of the 290,000-sf Garland Building at 111 N. Wabash Ave., bought by FIC Development Group late last summer for $24 million.