The office portion of the building was reportedly sold for more than $30 million. Stonewater principal David Stade could not confirm the sales price and could not disclose a cap rate because the building is only 48% leased. "We are value-added investors so we look at it as a lease-up play in an improving Chicago market," Spade says. There are currently five separate tenants in the building which are International Academy of Design and Technology, National Opinion Research, Hostway, Help at Home and Zipatoni. Transwestern will take over as property manager and JF McKinney will handle marketing and leasing for the building.

The asking lease rates will range from about $25 per sf to $30 per sf gross, says Mike Watts, senior vice president with JF McKinney. The building has large floor plates of about 50,000 sf which makes it "ideally suited" for larger tenants. The building also has "cutting edge technology" of a raised floor system which makes the location well-suited for technology-orientated tenants. "We have to reinvigorate the marketing effort there. There has not been a lot of marketing there in the past," he says.

The historic building was constructed in 1912 by Holabird & Roche for the Madel Brothers department store. "It is very well located relative to transportation corridors," Spade said, noting there is an El stop nearby. The location is near the Block 37 mixed-use development "which kind of changes the critical mass of that area," Stade says. "And, you cannot get a much better location in that East Loop [submarket] than Madison [Avenue] and State [Street]. At one point, it was considered the busiest intersection in the world."