“A west suburban investor behind a $184 million plan to turn a historic Loop office tower into apartments has lined up another downtown revival project on State Street.

“A venture led by Bloomingdale-based businessman Marc Calabria paid $4.2 million earlier this month for the vacant, 480,000-square-foot office building at 401 S. State St., according to Illinois property records. The landmark, which stretches along a full block of State Street between Van Buren Street and Ida B. Wells Drive, was sold by a lender that foreclosed on the building more than two years ago.

“401 S. State was last sold in 2016 for $68.1 million, when it was fully leased to Robert Morris University. The previous owner financed that purchase with a $47.8 million mortgage. But the school was acquired by Roosevelt University, then vacated the building and stopped paying rent with more than four years left on its lease.

“Now Calabria, who owns Bloomingdale-based IMC Accounting & Tax, has picked it up at a price well below the $9.2 million at which the property was appraised in May 2024, according to Bloomberg data on the previous loan. Brokers from Cushman & Wakefield led an online auction for the property in August.

“Calabria is already involved with one ambitious office conversion downtown at 105 W. Adams St., where he and a local developer are proposing to transform the majority of a 41-story building into 400 apartments with the help of $68 million in tax-increment financing money. The project is part of the city’s LaSalle Street Reimagined program offering city subsidies for such redevelopments to help bring more regular foot traffic to the Loop.

“The State Street building, meanwhile, was highlighted in a 2023 Urban Land Institute study commissioned by the city for recommendations on ways to revitalize the corridor following the pandemic. The study pointed to rampant vacancy on the southern portion of State Street in the Loop and suggested public investments should create a “civic and educational district” serving students that populate the area from DePaul University, Roosevelt University and other nearby institutions.

“The William Le Baron Jenney-designed building used to be a flagship Sears department store and was designated a national historic landmark in 1976. The building officially became a Chicago landmark in 1997.” (Ecker, Crain’s Chicago Business, 10/31/25)

“Renowned as one of the nation’s most important early examples of skeletal-frame commercial architecture, this building is discussed in every major history of American architecture. A National Historic Landmark, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney, the so-called ‘father of the skyscraper.’ This building was erected by Levi Leiter; later, it was leased by Sears, Roebuck & Co. for its flagship department store. It is the city’s oldest surviving department store, a type of building that contributed to State Street’s development as a retailing thoroughfare. The so-called ‘first Leiter’ building, built in 1879 at Wells and Monroe, was demolished in 1972. (Landmarks Division, City of Chicago)

Preservation Chicago is optimistic that Leiter II will be restored and reactivated after a long vacancy and auction. The Second Leiter/Leiter II Building is a very important building and has been widely published in numerous books around the world, and the oldest of the buildings of the Chicago School of Architecture on State Street. It’s also the oldest remaining former department store building on State Street. Also, Levi Leiter was a business partner with Marshall Field and even Potter Palmer of the Palmer House Hotel fame, as well as the Marshall Field department store, in those early days of Chicago. Much of Chicago’s retail and architectural history is tied to this seminal building.

The Second Leiter/Leiter II Building is an exceptional Chicago Landmark, designed by the “Father of the Skyscraper,” William Le Baron Jenney, and one of our 11 candidates for a UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as part of the “Early Chicago Skyscrapers.” The road to being a UNESCO site is long and can take more than a decade, but just wanted to share that despite being submitted in 2017, by many of us, including Preservation Chicago and the City of Chicago, one day this will be part of this legendary group of structures

Read the full story at Crain’s Chicago Business

• West suburban investor buys distressed State Street landmark, Danny Ecker, Crain’s Chicago Business, 10/31/25
• This historic office building in Chicago sold for just over $4 million. Is a residential conversion up next? Local businessman Marc Calabria buys vacant 1891 downtown landmark, Ryan Ori, CoStar, 10/30/25
• Making no little plans, businessman to buy Burnham building in Chicago after nearby acquisition, Marc Calabria has deal to buy Railway Exchange Building on Michigan Avenue, Ryan Ori, CoStar, 10/31/25
• Old Robert Morris University building pitched as housing, student athletics center; An architecture firm and an engineering company created the proposals on their own, not for a prospective client. Their work represents the type of thinking needed to generate some excitement around the vacant landmark, Lee Bey, Chicago Sun-Times, 8/15/25
• 401 South State Auction Listing from RImarketplace on Aug. 13, 2025
• Leiter II Building, 1891, William Le Baron Jenney, 401 S. State St. Designated a Chicago Landmark on January 14, 1997