Specific conversion deals spotted
Concord Capital and other buyers closed on downtown loft office buildings, including the Pontiac Building in Printer’s Row, with plans to convert them into apartments and create new housing supply. One report lists two loft buildings sold for conversion into about 107 luxury units targeting completion around 2028. (chicagobusiness.com)
Chicago’s office-to-apartment push is spreading beyond City Hall-backed towers, with private buyers now closing on older loft buildings for housing conversions. (chicagobusiness.com) Crain’s Chicago Business reported on April 13 that Concord Capital bought two downtown loft office buildings, including the historic Pontiac Building in Printer’s Row, with plans to turn them into apartments. The report said one pair of loft-building sales is tied to roughly 107 luxury units targeted for completion around 2028. (chicagobusiness.com) One of the other buildings in the article is 445 West Erie Street in River North, a three-story brick-and-timber loft property of about 53,000 square feet that had been marketed as office space. LoopNet materials describe the building as an early-1900s warehouse-style office property with 18-foot ceilings and mezzanines. (chicagobusiness.com) (loopnet.com) The deals add to a wider Chicago shift: the city says six LaSalle Street Reimagined projects now advancing with financial assistance represent more than $900 million in investment and 1,765 housing units. Those projects are concentrated in the Loop and include affordability requirements that many private-market loft conversions do not. (chicago.gov 1) (chicago.gov 2) City-backed conversions have kept moving in 2025 and 2026. Chicago approved support for 117 mixed-income units at 79 West Monroe Street, and in March proposed up to $40 million in Tax Increment Financing and other incentives for a 345-unit conversion at 111 West Monroe Street. (chicago.gov 1) (chicago.gov 2) Private developers are also already under construction on other downtown conversions. Urbanize Chicago reported that work began in 2025 on a 252-unit conversion at 65 East Wacker Place and a 153-unit conversion at 111 West Illinois Street, the former Salesforce and WeWork offices. (urbanize.city 1) (urbanize.city 2) National data points the same way. RentCafe reported that office-to-apartment conversions in the United States pipeline were set to reach nearly 71,000 units in 2025, up 28% from a year earlier, and later said Chicago overtook Manhattan as the top city for adaptive-reuse apartment deliveries in 2024. (rentcafe.com) (rentcafe.com) Chicago has leaned on Tax Increment Financing to make some conversions work. The city says that tool uses growth in property tax value inside a designated district to help fund redevelopment, infrastructure and reuse projects. (chicago.gov) The new loft deals show a second track emerging downtown: not only landmark office towers getting public aid, but smaller historic office buildings trading hands because buyers think apartments pencil out. If those projects open on schedule around 2028, they would add housing supply without waiting for another city subsidy round. (chicagobusiness.com)
