Sam Zell continues to take advantage of a sellers real estate market. Zell's latest sale is Illinois Center, sold through his Equity Commonwealth REIT to AmTrust Realty for a reported $376M. Equity Commonwealth put the two mixed-use buildings at 111 E Wacker Dr and 233 N Michigan Ave up for sale in April, and analysts believed a sale could have fetched as much as $425M. Zell and Equity president Dave Helfand took control of the company last year and put in place a plan to sell up to $3B of the REIT's assets to rid themselves of smaller buildings in remote locations and capitalize on a strong American investment market, reports Crain's. AmTrust will have their work cut out for them with Illinois Center and will invest millions into renovating the development's 77k SF retail concourse and reducing a 30% vacancy rate. [Crain's]
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