CHICAGO-Metzler North America, headquartered in Seattle, has acquired the historic Rookery building, at 209 S. LaSalle St. Broadway Real Estate Partners, headquartered in New York City, sold the property for about $73 million, confirmed Jeb Bradford, managing director of Metzler North America, which is an affiliate of Bankhaus Metzler.
Michael Vesper, with CB Richard Ellis, represented Broadway Partners in the transaction. A cap rate was not disclosed. The 286,000-sf building was acquired on behalf of “a private German family who is looking for generational-type assets in large suburban regions of the United States,” Bradford says. “The historical nature of the building really appealed to the family.”
The 12-story building was constructed in 1885 and designed by Daniel Burnham and John Root. The interior was remodeled in 1905, with designs by Frank Lloyd Wright. The building is a National Historic Landmark as well as on the city's historic buildings list. The Rookery is currently 97% leased. While the property is in the heart of the city's traditional financial district, the building draws a variety of types of tenants. Notable tenants include US Bank, commodities-based trading firm Interactive Brokers group, Brooks Brothers, Tabet Divito, architectural firm TVS and the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Justice, both with the US General Services Administration.
Broadway Partners acquired the building in April 2006 for $56 million from ING Clarion Partners. At that time, the building was only about 65% leased, Bradford says. “They put a tremendous amount of money into leasing it up,” he says. The family plans on having some renovations and capital improvements done to the building in the next year such as upgrading all of the common areas and new roofs, Bradford says. Metzler also owns the one-million-sf office building at 111 S. Wacker in Chicago and the mixed-use shopping center Renaissance Place on Green Bay Road in Highland Park.
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