Big Office Investments from Asia Fell in 2016

In 2015, Samsung SRA Asset Management paid $314 million for the Harris Bank Building and Harris Bank Addition II at 111 W. Monroe St. and 115 S. LaSalle St.

CHICAGO—Asian investors have been mostly favorable toward Chicago’s office market. Along with four other core US cities, in the past few years it has seen a number of blockbuster sales for trophy properties. But even though Asian investment in such trophy properties quadrupled in 2016, Chicago was shut out of such investments last year, according to a joint study between Commercial Café and Yardi Matrix.

The partners tabulated the top 20 US office transactions in each year since 2012. New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco, the four other core areas that historically have most interested Asian investors, each had at least three Asian-led office property acquisitions that made the top 20 largest deals list in 2016, and all had recorded growth in terms of these investments.