Chicago hotel investment firm Falor Cos. is forming a joint venture with the operator of Hotel 71 to convert the riverfront property into a condominium hotel.
Located at 71 E. Wacker Drive, the former Executive Plaza Hotel was renamed in 2002 after a $20 million renovation that increased capacity to 454 rooms. The new deal values the property at more than $83 million, or $182,000 a room, sources said. Falor is forming the venture with Cleveland-based Boykin Lodging Co., which also has a 45 percent ownership stake.
The deal is the latest sign that condo hotels are taking root here. Under the concept, rooms are sold as condominiums to private buyers, who allow the hotel to rent them out when the owners are not using them.
Robert Falor is president and chief executive of the buyer. The firm has hotel-condo projects in Florida, California and Chicago, including the Hotel Blake, 500 S. Dearborn St., where sales of units are expected to start closing next month.
In 1999 a joint venture of Boykin and Boston-based AEW Capital Management LP bought the Wacker Drive hotel, which then had 421 rooms, in a deal that valued the property at $48 million.
Lehman consolidates offices: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is increasing its space at 190 S. LaSalle St. by two-thirds, to about 110,000 square feet, said Mark Gunderson, a senior vice president with Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., which manages the Central Loop tower.
The 15-year lease will allow Leham to consolidate offices now at 200 S. Wacker Drive and 311 S. Wacker Drive. CB Richard Ellis Inc. represented Lehman.
Loop site on market: MJ Partners Real Estate Services has been hired to market 318 W. Adams St., a vintage West Loop office building, with a price tag of $7.5 million, said Marc Boorstein, a principal in the Chicago firm.
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Wells Fargo Bank last month completed a foreclosure on the 158,000-square-foot building, court documents show. The bank is trustee for holders of securities backed in part by the mortgage.
The 19-story structure was owned by a venture that included Steve Byers, president and chief executive of Chicago-based Wextrust Capital LLC, and Craig Walker, a Denver real estate investor and electronics executive.
Hoffman Estates complex sold: Investor William O’Kane, owner of the Midwest region of Keller Williams Realty, has acquired Barrington Lakes Apartments, a 789-unit complex in Hoffman Estates, said Symeon Stavrakas, managing director of Keller’s commercial brokerage arm.
The seller was a partnership that included Howard Fink, president of Skokie-based Town Management Corp., he said. The price was in the mid-$60 million range, sources said.
Kisers leave Marcus Millichap: Lee and Estella Kiser, a husband and wife team of brokers, said they have left the local office of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Co. to form their own Chicago-based firm, Kiser Group, specializing in apartment building sales.
Toulabi buys condo project: Chicago restaurateur and real estate investor Reza Toulabi has a contract to acquire 4180 N. Marine Drive, the stalled condominium conversion project overlooking Lincoln Park, an asset of bankrupt developer Polo Builders Inc., sources said.
The transaction includes 156 of the 189 units in the building, said Harley Goldstein, the lawyer for the trustee in the Polo bankruptcy and a partner in law firm Freeborn & Peters LLP.
He said the purchase price is about $17 million, subject to certain adjustments.