The investment fund that owns the Gap flagship store on North Michigan Avenue is considering putting it on the market, looking to take advantage of the strong investor demand for premier properties.
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One possible buyer is the San Francisco-based casual clothes retailer, which has a right to make the first offer to buy the 48,000-square-foot building under a long-term lease signed in 1999, sources said.
TMW Property Funds, the building’s owner since 1998, is weighing its options, with a decision expected to be made next month, said a spokeswoman for TMW, a unit of Prudential Real Estate Investors. She declined to comment further, but sources said Eastdil Realty Co. would likely be hired to market the property.
On the open market the three-story structure is expected to fetch a bid of about $40 million, sources said. In recent months Gap Inc.’s credit rating has been raised to investment grade, making the deal attractive to institutional buyers.
Wacker Drive deal: A venture controlled by Carnegie Realty Partners LLC has a contract to buy 250 S. Wacker Drive, a 16-story office tower that in December was handed back to the lender. The price is nearly $17 million for the 326,400-square-foot structure, sources said.
John Thomas, Carnegie’s chief executive, said he and a small group of investors tied up the building on Feb. 9 with a $500,000 cash deposit.
But Thomas has agreed in principle to form a venture with Sterling Bay Cos. to renovate the antiquated building, converting it into office condominiums, said Scott Goodman, a principal in Sterling Bay.
The venture will be controlled by Chicago-based Sterling Bay, which is also conducting an office condo conversion of 25 N. Wells St.
The deal is a remarkable chapter in the career of John Thomas, a former New Yorker who started Carnegie in 2001. He is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last fall to credit card fraud in federal court in Long Island, court records show.
Invsco bid: American Invsco Corp. has a non-binding contract to acquire Windsor at Ontario Place, a 470-unit apartment tower at 10 E. Ontario St., sources said. Invsco Chairman Nicholas Gouletas declined to comment.
Before the property was formally put on the market, the Chicago-based real estate firm made a preemptive bid for the 50-story tower, which is owned by a fund managed by Boston-based General Investment and Development Co.
The price is estimated to be more than $125 million, experts said.
Bolingbrook lease: Quebecor World Logistics Inc. has leased a new, 313,200-square-foot distribution center in Highland Corporate Center in Bolingbrook, said ML Realty LLC, which is developing the 76-acre industrial park. The tenant is the third-party shipping arm of Montreal-based printer Quebecor World Inc.