A Colorado-based real estate company has struck a deal to buy a Helmut Jahn-designed office building in Chicago’s western suburbs amid a national buying spree that recently included a high-priced deal on North Michigan Avenue in the city.
Real Capital Solutions has a contract to buy MetroWest, a 10-story building at 55 Shuman Blvd. in Naperville, Illinois, according to people familiar with the situation.
The deal has not been completed and still could fall apart, with steep challenges remaining in the U.S. office sector.
If the deal is finalized soon as expected, it will extend a run of office acquisitions by the Louisville, Colorado-based investor that has said it plans to continue aggressively bidding on discounted properties throughout the country.
In January, Real Capital Solutions completed a $132.5 million purchase of the 35-story tower at 401 N. Michigan Ave. at the southern tip of Chicago’s best-known shopping corridor. That was the highest-priced office acquisition in the city since 2022, but it came at a discount to the value of a $160 million loan that seller Walton Street Capital took out in a 2019 refinancing of the tower.
Real Capital Solutions also has been buying properties in other markets, including multiple recent deals in Dallas. After one of those deals in December, the firm told CoStar News that it plans to raise $400 million as part of its first fund to acquire U.S. office properties at prices far below peak values.
“We are buying at values and discounts we won’t see for another decade or two,” Adam Abeln, chief acquisitions officer at Real Capital Solutions, told CoStar News at the time.
The price that Real Capital Solutions is paying for the suburban Chicago building could not be determined, but it is believed to be far below the $32.5 million that Philadelphia-area landlord Equus paid for it in 2015 during a strong investment sales market.
Real Capital Solutions and Equus did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CoStar News.
Late last year, Equus sold the two-building Mid America Plaza office complex in west suburban Oakbrook Terrace to California-based Tryperion Holding for $59 million. That was a discount from the $78 million that Equus paid for the property in 2016.
Real Capital Solutions already has a history of owning real estate in the Chicago suburbs, including an approximately $38.7 million deal for the four-building Naperville Corporate Center in 2018. That property is just over a mile from MetroWest.
Newmark brokers began marketing the 207,714-square-foot building for sale in October.
At the time, the building was more than 32% vacant with a weighted average lease term of 3.9 years, according to a Newmark brochure.
The investment was marketed as an opportunity to buy a recognizable, Jahn-designed building along the Interstate 88 tollway at a historically low price and boost the value through new leases.
Designed by German-born, Chicago-based architect Jahn, the postmodern building opened in 1986.
Jahn died in 2021 when he was struck by vehicles while riding a bike in the suburbs.
For the record
The seller is represented by Newmark brokers Jim Postweiler, Peter Harwood, Derek Fohl, Jack Trager, Mary Gilbank and Alexander Dilkovski.