CHICAGO—Last year, when Chicago-based Urban Innovations, a company with a lot of property in the River North neighborhood, repurchased, at a significantly lower price, several office buildings in the West Loop's Greektown neighborhood that the firm had sold to another investor in 2005, the property had a 30% vacancy rate. But the company just signed a new 17,000-square-foot lease at 322 S. Green St., one of the buildings, to Elevate Energy, a non-profit organization, formerly known as CNT Energy, which assists users in accessing more efficient energy sources.

Aaron Zaretsky handles leasing for the now fully-leased 322 S. Green St., and has increased its occupancy by 42%. Elevate Energy was represented by William Donahue of Lichter Realty, Inc. The property was recently renovated and includes newly expanded restrooms, corridor and lobby upgrades, a bicycle storage room, fully built-out office suites and fiber connectivity from multiple service providers.

Urban Innovations repurchased the Green St. building and the adjacent 833 W. Jackson Blvd. from Wells Fargo for only $14 million, or about $4 million less than they sold them for in 2005. The previous owner was probably undercapitalized, Mike Scilingo, president of Urban Innovations, told GlobeSt.com, and unable to keep up the common areas and provide proper services. “He was just overextended,” and perhaps more importantly, may not have understood the Greektown office market.