A local businessman who wants to convert much of a historic office tower in Chicago’s Loop business district into affordable apartments has snapped up a vacant structure nearby out of financial distress.
A venture of Marc Calabria earlier this month paid $4.2 million for the eight-story building at 401 S. State St., according to Cook County property records and CoStar data.
Designed by architect William Le Baron Jenney and completed in 1891, the structure has been a national landmark since 1976 and a Chicago landmark since 1997, according to Cushman & Wakefield, which marketed the property for sale via auction.
The building’s colorful history includes originating as a Siegel, Cooper & Co. department store before later serving for several decades as a Sears, Roebuck & Co. department store.
Most recently, the building was fully leased to Robert Morris University.
But the property has been in financial distress in recent years, after Robert Morris moved out of the property in 2020 and merged with Roosevelt University.
The property has been owned by the lender on $47.8 million in commercial mortgage-backed securities debt for more than two years, after the previous owner defaulted following Roosevelt’s exit.
Special servicer CWCapital earlier this year hired Cushman & Wakefield to sell the building via auction.
The sale price was a fraction of the $68.1 million that the building last sold for in 2016, according to CoStar data.
It’s unclear what Calabria, head of Bloomingdale, Illinois-based IMC Accounting & Tax, has in mind for the property at 401 S. State. Calabria and and CWCapital did not respond to requests for comment from CoStar News.
One nearby project that Calabria is investing in offers a potential clue.
400 proposed apartments
Calabria and Chicago-based developer Primera Group are working on a plan to convert much of the 41-story Clark Adams Building at 105 W. Adams St. into 400 apartments. The proposed redevelopment of the art deco structure is part of a broader, city-backed program in which developers can land public financial backing for projects on and around State Street in which at least 30% of the units are set aside with affordable, below-market rents.
Primera and Calabria already have a commitment from the city to provide nearly $68 million toward the conversion.
The project recently took a key step toward city landmark status despite ongoing litigation involving the building, Crain’s Chicago Business reported, including one lawsuit by a different group of developers alleging they were cut out of a deal to buy the building and a threat of separate legal action by the owner of the Club Quarters Chicago hotel on lower floors of the building regarding consent for a zoning change.
The number of residential units planned at 105 W. Adams has increased since Primera and Calabria bought it in late 2024.
It’s not clear whether Calabria is considering a residential conversion at 401 S. State or whether he has partners on that acquisition.
Alternate uses explored
The wide building takes up a full city block between State and Van Buren streets and Ida B. Wells Drive at the south end of the Loop central business district.
It was marketed as a potential office redevelopment for a user or a conversion to another use. The sale includes a small, adjacent structure that also is vacant and contains mechanical equipment servicing 401 S. State, according to the Cushman & Wakefield materials.
In 2023, the Urban Land Institute, the Chicago Loop Alliance and the city of Chicago conducted a study to explore potential alternate uses for the building. Architecture firm Perkins & Will and engineering firm TYLin drew up potential uses such as apartments or an athletics center for nearby universities in the South Loop, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in August.
For the record
The seller was represented by Cushman & Wakefield brokers Cody Hundertmark, Hunter Moss, Kelsey Berry and Jeremiah Olsen.