A University of Illinois-led technology research center has struck a deal to buy a 16-story office tower on Wacker Drive along the Chicago River for about $25 million after it backed off plans to anchor a 62-acre mixed-use development.
The Discovery Partners Institute has a contract to buy the 1950s-era building at 250 S. Wacker Drive from Swiss financial services giant UBS, according to people familiar with the situation.
The building is mostly vacant after brewer Molson Coors struck a deal in 2023 to move its U.S. headquarters from most of the space at 250 S. Wacker to the newly built BMO Tower across the river. A Credit Suisse affiliate bought the Wacker Drive building for $90 million in 2011, according to Cook County property records and CoStar data. Credit Suisse merged with UBS in 2024.
If the deal is completed as expected, it will be the latest example of older office properties in Chicago and other cities selling at massive discounts to previous valuations amid historically low demand.
It hasn't been spelled out exactly what Discovery Partners Institute plans to do with the building, but it currently leases space in the neighboring office tower at 200 S. Wacker.
The university system confirmed plans for the building on Thursday but declined to comment on specifics of the deal or reasons for the purchase.
“Yesterday, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees authorized the University of Illinois System to proceed with the purchase of a building,” the spokesperson said in an email to CoStar News. “At this stage, the board’s action provides approval to move forward. The transaction is not yet complete, and until it is finalized, we are not at liberty to share additional details about the property or its intended use.”
The seller did not immediately respond to requests to comment from CoStar News.
Long-running search
Plans to own a building add a new twist to the long-running search to find a permanent home for the research hub that will focus on generating new technologies using artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
For years, the institute had planned to build and occupy a domed facility within Related Midwest’s megadevelopment called The 78. That project, south of the Wacker Drive tower, will include a new stadium for Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire.
But in late 2024, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and other state officials announced that the institute no longer planned to move to The 78, with plans to stay instead within its office space at 200 S. Wacker.
At the time, state officials said the institute eventually would have space within a sprawling quantum computing complex on the site of a former U.S. Steel plant on the city’s south lakefront.
Construction of that complex began last year, and several companies — most recently, Israel’s Quantum Machines — have signed on as tenants.
Last month, Gene Robinson was named the new executive director and CEO of the Discovery Partners Institute. In a statement at the time, Robinson said the institute "has a mandate to do something big in AI."
For the record
UBS is represented in the sale by CBRE broker David Knapp.