Chicago’s Biggest Deals Of 2024 Reflect City's 'Innate Optimism'

The dealmaking floodgates haven’t opened quite yet in the Windy City, but 2024 represented the first step toward a return to the good old days for some of the city’s biggest asset classes. 

Office sales volume ticked up slightly after an anemic 2023, and user industrial sales increased from last year. Multifamily sales slowed, but asking rents still climbed. 

The city’s CRE stakeholders are more optimistic about Chicago’s real estate prospects, too. About 60% of respondents to a midyear sentiment report were bullish or optimistic about the city's real estate prospects, compared to just 39.1% in the 2023 edition of the survey.

“The innate optimism we are seeing, in spite of challenging market conditions, reinforces the resilience and long-range view of many real estate investors and developers,” Reagan Pratt, the director of the Real Estate Center at DePaul University, said in the report. 

Commercial real estate players made some notable deals in 2024. Here’s your recap of the biggest sales in Chicago in industrial, office and multifamily this year. 

Industrial: Still Chasing Highs

Industrial stakeholders are still chasing the high of the asset class' explosion following the pandemic, but saw “sluggish” sales activity in Q3 ahead of the election and the Federal Reserve’s rate cuts, according to Savills’ most recent report. 

Deals that closed this year may just be the appetizer before 2025’s main course. Panelists at Bisnow’s November Industrial Summit said many brokerages pushed back activity set for the fourth quarter of this year into the first quarter of 2025. 

“We're forecasting based on our pipeline that quarter one of 2025 is probably going to be our strongest quarter one in the past four to five years,” Robin Stolberg, managing director at Clear Height Properties, said at the event.

Here are the top three deals in the Chicago industrial sector ordered by sale price, per Savills data:

Elwood Intermodal Center

• Sale price: $125M
• Size: 1.7M SF
• Price per SF: $74
• Sale month: April
• Seller: CenterPoint Properties
• Buyer: Stonepeak
• Property makeup: Three-building portfolio

Takeaway: Stonepeak snagged the fully leased portfolio with access to the railroad to continue a focus on supply chain-real estate anchored by inland infrastructure. CenterPoint began building the center as a spec site in 2021.

I-55 Corridor Portfolio

• Sale price: $98.8M
• Size: 1.3M SF
• Price per SF: $77
• Sale month: March
• Seller: DWS Group
• Buyer: Brookfield Properties
• Property makeup: Three-building portfolio

Takeaway: Brookfield bought three industrial buildings from DWS Group at 340 Crossroads Parkway and 555 Remington Blvd. in Bolingbrook and 1125 Remington Blvd. in Romeoville. This was one of two major industrial deals between the trade partners. 

2425 Busse Road

• Sale price: $83.5M
• Size: 164K SF
• Price per SF: $510
• Sale month: March
• Seller: DWS Group
• Buyer: Brookfield Properties
• Property makeup: Data center

Takeaway: Brookfield bought the data storage facility near O’Hare International Airport as part of its purchase of Cyxtera out of bankruptcy. The deal was a portion of Brookfield's agreement to purchase “substantially all” of Cyxtera’s assets and buy properties from several of the company's landlords, according to CoStar News.

Office: Some Movement After Slow Start

The Chicago office market is finally beginning to see some movement after the period between August 2022 and December 2023 saw no properties change hands for more than $50M. 

In addition to the deals listed below, several sizable sales have reportedly closed or are near finalization but could not be confirmed through property records. This includes FRI Investors’ $100M deal for 70 W. Madison, 601W’s $63M purchase of 303 E. Wacker Drive and talks by a venture led by former Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver to acquire the former Groupon HQ. 

“Despite significant tenant contractions in 2024, there were more tenant expansions compared to 2023,” Transwestern Research Director Caitlin Ritter said. “Additionally, we are seeing an increase in tenants in the market with sizable space requirements, which bodes well for leasing activity in 2025."

Here are the top three deals in the Chicago office sector ordered by sale price, per Transwestern data:

333 W. Wacker Drive

• Sale price: $125M
• Size: 888K SF
• Price per SF: $141
• Sale month: July
• Seller: AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust
• Buyer: Beacon Capital Partners
• Building makeup: 36-story office tower along the Chicago River

Takeaway: Beacon's purchase was the city's priciest office sale in over two years. The deal marks the second time the firm has owned the tower. It let the property go for $208M in August 2004 to German investor KanAm Group. 

150 N. Michigan Ave. 

• Sale price: $60M
• Size: 655K SF
• Price per SF: $92
• Sale month: January
• Seller: Metlife (Lender)
• Buyer: R2
• Building makeup: 41-story office building

Takeaway: R2 purchased the office tower for roughly half the price it sold for in 2017. R2 received financing from a fund managed by MetLife Investment Management, which originated the $87M mortgage that CBRE Investment Management borrowed at the time. 

400 S. Jefferson St.

• Sale price: $38.5M
• Size: 247K SF
• Price per SF: $156
• Sale month: March
• Seller: Office Properties Income Trust
• Buyer: The Community Solution Education System and The Chicago School
• Building makeup: Former Tyson Foods building

Takeaway: A joint venture acquired 400 S. Jefferson St., which will house The Chicago School's consolidated operations and the proposed Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine. The 247K SF facility is expected to open in 2025 and will accommodate approximately 1,800 students, faculty and staff.

Multifamily: Sales Lagged

None of this year’s top multifamily sales eclipsed the sales prices of last year’s eye-popping luxury apartment deals, and sales through the first half of the year trailed the same period in 2023 by 50%, according to a Q2 Northmarq report. 

Still, some sizable transactions closed through in the year, and rents continued to tick up after dipping at the end of 2023. 

Here are the top three deals in the Chicago multifamily sector ordered by sale price, per CBRE data:

Arrive Michigan Ave. (formerly Paragon)

• Sale price: $144M
• Size: 500 units
• Price per SF: $371
• Sale month: March
• Seller: CIM Group
• Buyer: Affiliate of FPA Multifamily
• Building makeup: 47-story luxury apartment building

Takeaway: An affiliate of FPA Multifamily made the biggest multifamily splash in the city this year, scooping up the apartment building at 1326 S. Michigan Ave., which was completed in 2019. Still, the building was likely sold at a loss for CIM Group, as the tower cost $171M to construct, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

Parker Fulton Market

• Sale price: $93M
• Size: 227 units
• Price per SF: $473
• Sale month: October
• Seller: J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Atlantic Residential
• Buyer: Centaur Capital Partners
• Building makeup: 29-story luxury apartment building

Takeaway: Centaur Capital Partners, the family office of Blackstone Real Estate Advisors co-founder John Schreiber, was part of a venture to buy the Fulton Market tower. The property at 730 W. Couch Place last sold to J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Atlantic Residential in 2017 for $111.4M.

Parkline

• Sale price: $88M
• Size: 213 units
• Price per SF: $419
• Sale month: September
• Seller: Venture including developers Tom Roszak and Dan Moceri
• Buyer: AmTrust Realty
• Building makeup: 26-story luxury apartment building

Takeaway: Parkline is the first apartment building AmTrust has purchased in Chicago, as the firm is better known in Chicago as an office landlord. The venture that sold the property put it on the market in 2021.