International Buyers Looking at Properties Outside the CBD

The former manufacturing facility was converted to office use in the 1990s.

CHICAGO—Everbury Partners, a limited partnership managed by J. Michael Drew, founding principal of Chicago-based Structured Development, recently sold 1333 N. Kingsbury St., a four-story, 100,000-square-foot loft office building in Chicago’s Clybourn Corridor. A unit of Zurich, Switzerland-based Credit Suisse Group paid $27.8 million for the property, or $278 per square foot. Investors from around the world have been eagerly buying up the CBD’s top office properties for years, but this deal illustrates that many are also looking for deals in outlying neighborhoods.   

“What’s happening in Chicago is that institutional buyers have recognized that these loft buildings are the new cool spaces that tech companies are really attracted to,” Drew tells GlobeSt.com. He points to prominent examples such as Google, Groupon, and Quicken Loans, all of which “have gone into repurposed, former industrial buildings that have large floor plates and high ceilings.” Buyers will pay to gain access to these credit tenants, as well as the cash flow and cachet that goes with loft office properties.