A local firm that last year bought a loft office building in Chicago’s Streeterville with plans to convert it into 72 apartments has flipped it to another local developer with a similar plan.
Horizon Realty Group last month sold the seven-story Pelouze Building at 230 E. Ohio St. to affiliates of Wildwood Investments for $9.75 million, according to online property records and CoStar data.
The purchase price, well above the just over $5.6 million that Horizon paid in September 2024, reflects the high multifamily demand in Chicago.
The deal comes as the Chicago area leads the nation in multifamily rent growth, according to CoStar data, largely because of a dearth of new units in recent years as borrowing and construction costs have risen. Rents have fallen in fast-growing cities in areas such as the Sun Belt after a building boom in recent years.
To overcome high costs of ground-up development and still meet demand in Chicago, developers such as Horizon and Wildwood have sought out loft office buildings or bigger, outdated office towers that they can convert into residences in areas of the city such as the Loop business district, River North and the Magnificent Mile.
Horizon Chief Operating Officer Jeff Michael said his firm completed interior demolition and moved out remaining office tenants before selling the historic building. He declined to comment further to CoStar News on the decision to sell what was to be the firm’s first office-to-residential project.
Wildwood Investments Principal Matt Katsaros confirmed plans to follow through with the residential conversion but declined to comment further to CoStar News on the deal.
The building at 230 E. Ohio, completed in 1917, was designed by architect Alfred Alschuler. It was named for William Nelson Pelouze, whose scale-making company used the structure for offices and storage, according to historical accounts.
The building later served as the longtime office of famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and as the backdrop for the 1980s television series “Mary” starring Mary Tyler Moore, according to the Chicago Tribune. The exterior was the backdrop of the series, with Moore’s character writing a column for a fictional newspaper based in the building.