A year after selling the 600 West Chicago office building along the Chicago River at a massive loss, a local developer is looking to sell a parking garage across the street as a multifamily development site.
Sterling Bay has hired a JLL broker to seek a buyer for the five-story garage at 530 W. Chicago Ave., according to a brochure.
JLL is marketing the property as a 30,725-square-foot development site for an apartment mid-rise or high-rise with up to 400 units.
Sterling Bay is looking to sell the parking structure almost exactly a year after completing the nearly $88.7 million sale of the ultrawide office building at 600 W. Chicago to Arizona-based 3Edgewood.
That price was a fraction of the $510 million that Sterling Bay paid for the approximately 1.6 million-square-foot former Montgomery Ward warehouse in February 2018.
In August 2018, Sterling Bay paid another $15.5 million for the garage at 530 W. Chicago, according to Cook County property records.
The sale price likely will depend on the zoning density the buyer can secure for a residential development on the site.
A buyer could demolish the garage and put a 67-unit apartment building on the site as-of-right under a reciprocal easement with the owner of an adjacent parking garage at 811 N. Larrabee St., according to the JLL materials. That garage was part of the 600 W. Chicago sale to 3Edgewood, property records show.
Changes to that agreement could clear the way for a 175-unit tower under existing zoning for the broader site that includes both garages, according to JLL, or a buyer could negotiate rights to additional development density from the neighboring property owner for a tower with as many as 400 units.
A new project at 530 W. Chicago would add to the pipeline of projects along the river just north of the Loop business district, which includes construction of a sprawling Bally’s casino complex just across the river and Canadian developer Onni Group’s plans for thousands of apartments on and around a former Greyhound bus maintenance facility at the southern tip of Goose Island.
“530 W. Chicago is a great opportunity for new ownership, with the nearby casino development creating new opportunities and a renewed interest in the neighborhood,” a Sterling Bay spokesperson said in an email to CoStar News. “As the capital markets shift and acquisition activity continues to climb, we believe it is the right time to bring this property to market.”
A sale of 530 W. Chicago also would continue major changes to Sterling Bay’s portfolio after the firm lost control of the Lincoln Yards megadevelopment site on the North Side.
Sterling Bay also has been looking to sell properties near Lincoln Yards and in Fulton Market, including an office building at 345 N. Morgan St. that hit the market last week.
For the record
The seller is represented by JLL broker Dan Reynolds.