John Hancock Acquires One South Wacker

CHICAGO—John Hancock, the US division of Toronto-based Manulife Financial Corp. has just completed the acquisition of One South Wacker, a 40-story, 1,195,170 square-foot office building in the West Loop for $344 million. Big office acquisitions in the CBD have become quite common, including many by foreign buyers, and Manulife now owns more than seven million square feet of downtown space.

When Harbor Group International, LLC bought the property for a little more than $220 million back in 2012, it was widely considered a class B building. But Harbor completed a renovation in 2014, and Manulife officials now consider the LEED Gold certified tower, first built in 1982, a class A property.