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The third time is the charm in Morgan Reed's attempts to sell the historic Pittsfield Building. The firm accepted a $20.8M bid to sell 30 of the building's 40 floors at 55 East Washington to Chinese-born investor Xiao Hua "Edward" Gong, according to Crain's Chicago Business.
Xiao is a player in Canadian real estate, focusing mainly on hotels and radio stations, who has slowly made inroads into American CRE. Xiao bought a 772-room Hyatt hotel in Dearborn, Michigan, last August and rechristened it the Edward Hotel & Convention Center. He also led a venture that bought a former Motorola cellphone factory in suburban Harvard last year and plans to produce smartphones there.
The Pittsfield Building, which Morgan Reed is working to sell out of bankruptcy, has been embroiled in drama, especially in the last couple of months. Akara Partners submitted a $16M bid for the building in April. One month later, Pioneer Acquisitions filed a $16.5M offer for the building. Pioneer's bid is a stalking horse offer intended to drive up bidding. The New York-based firm, which acquired sizable portions of the University of Chicago's real estate portfolio, is entitled to a $100K breakup fee if the sale is approved by a bankruptcy judge.
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