“A team of local investors has purchased a distressed Loop office tower that it plans to convert into apartments with the help of city taxpayers, reviving a vision from two affordable housing developers that was recently blown off course.

“Chicago-based Primera Group and a venture led by Bloomingdale investor Marc Calabria yesterday bought the office portion of the 41-story Clark Adams Building at 105 W. Adams St., Primera CEO Zach Waickman confirmed. Waickman declined to share the purchase price, but a source familiar with the deal said the buyers paid close to $11 million for the property, which includes about 330,000 square feet on 30 floors in the tower.

“Waickman said his firm intends to transform the vintage property into a primarily residential building with a “high percentage” of affordable rental units, though he did not provide specifics on how many apartments the plan entails.

“The purchase injects new life into a redevelopment that city officials hope will help bring more regular foot traffic to the Loop amid the rise of remote work. A joint venture of local developers Celadon Partners and Blackwood Group previously proposed converting the property into 247 apartments — the vast majority slated to be affordable units — and worked through an underwriting process with city planning and housing officials over the past year to determine the scope of taxpayer money that would help finance the $210 million project.

“The initial request from those developers was for a $60 million tax-increment financing subsidy through the LaSalle Street Reimagined initiative, a program launched by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration offering TIF money and other incentives for office-to-residential conversions to try to restore vitality to the central business district.

“That proposal appeared to hit a roadblock in recent months over a lack of clarity about future control of the building, ultimately prompting Old National to hire a broker over the summer to re-market the property for sale. Now Primera and Calabria have stepped in to ostensibly pick up the redevelopment reins.” (Ecker, Crain’s Chicago Business, 10/1/24)

Preservation Chicago applauds the adaptive reuse of the historic office building into affordable housing. We consider the adaptive reuse of the historic buildings into residential housing and residential affordable housing to be a best practice. Additionally, we’d encourage decision-makers to pursue Chicago Landmark Designation for this significant Art Deco skyscraper.

Read the full story at Crain’s Chicago Business

• Distressed Loop office tower sold to local investors for apartment conversion, Danny Ecker, Crain’s Chicago Business, 10/1/24
• Office tower in Chicago’s Loop sells for residential conversion; Local investors buy most of 41-story Clark Adams Building, hope to include it in city initiative, Ryan Ori, CoStar News, 10/1/24