CHICAGO—Sterling Bay Companies began buying up properties in the Fulton Market area several years ago, and has made itself into a leader in the effort to transform the former industrial district into a top-flight office hub. And yesterday it took another step toward that goal by entering into a joint venture with institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
Sterling Bay will contribute the Fulton Market assets it has acquired to the venture and J.P. Morgan will co-invest and co-develop the properties with Sterling Bay. As reported in GlobeSt.com, in March Sterling completed the $22 million acquisition of Fulton West, a portfolio of existing and partially completed office, retail and parking facilities.
That property includes three loft-style office buildings with about 165,000-square-feet of space. Also included is a four-story concrete superstructure at 1332 W. Fulton that information technology company Whittman-Hart began developing during the 1990s Internet boom. It was meant to help transform the neighborhood into a high-tech center, but the bursting of the dot.com bubble left it empty and unused.
The empty superstructure on Fulton could eventually have about 270,000-square-feet of office space and a 750-space parking facility. Sterling officials said they would not go spec on the project, but did see it possibly as a build-to-suit corporate headquarters.
“Partnering with an investor of J.P. Morgan's caliber provides Sterling Bay with increased credibility and capacity in the marketplace as we continue to build the company in a purposeful manner,” said Sterling Bay principal John Gavin. “We have been seeking a strategic partner for several years and have known J.P. Morgan to be a formidable firm with a heritage of disciplined real estate investing.”
Sterling Bay is best known for purchasing the Fulton Market Cold Storage building at 1000 W. Fulton in 2012, converting the 550,000-square-foot structure into modern office space and then signing Google, Inc. as its anchor tenant.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
