Willis Tower Owners Testing Waters On Putting Building Up For Sale

Christopher.F Photography

The owners of Willis Tower have hired two brokerages to market the nation's tallest skyscraper in the search for an investor or an outright sale of the building.

Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc. Managing Director Bruce Miller told the Sun-Times that the market for commercial properties is currently strong, but the multiple floor layouts, various revenue streams and sheer size may not make it a tenable asset.

Bill Utter, spokesman for the building's current owners, said, "We can confirm that a recapitalization effort has commenced with a select number of qualified investors. Our goal is to make a strong building even stronger.” Chicago-based American Landmark Properties Ltd and New York developers Joseph Moinian of the Moinian Group and Joseph Chetrit of the Chetrit Group bought the building in 2004 for about $900 million. Sources told Reuters that the building currently carries $780 million of debt. The tower is 18 percent vacant right now, after United Airlines signed a lease for 650,000 square foot of space in the tower.

Wouldn't it be cool if that investor wound up being Sears and they insisted on switching the name of the tower back to Sears Tower?

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By Chuck Sudo in News on June 3, 2011 8:38 AM

Comments [rss]

Ingridz

What is your experience? I mean, each and every time I hear someone reference this building, they still always say Sears Tower. It's like the only time you hear Willis Tower is like the media when they are trying to be politically correct.

slickpoetry

It's not "political correctness," Its "accuracy."

The building is named The Willis Tower, at least for right now. The media has to call it that.

Christopher Jones

WTF...they just bought it!

twocee

Willis just leased the space last year. But I know that current building owner (Equity something or other) has owned it for at least 3 and a half years.

Nicholas

I dunno, in today's market it is a terrible time to be selling.

BlueFairlane

I believe that part of the deal Willis got for renting its 15 square feet of office space was a contractual guarantee that the building's name wouldn't change for a specified length of time. I don't think a new owner or investor could change the building's name without running afoul of that contract.

Kevin_Robinson

I'll bet you could get a TIF for that!

BlueFairlane

Only if you made sure the potential buyer/investor was some downtrodden organization that really needed the money, some upstart like Boeing or United or somebody.

ChicagoD

You mean 150,000 sq. ft. or something, right? Otherwise I might be willing to rent 16 square feet to name it the "ChicagoD Tower, Bitches!" I would demand that it always be referred to as ChicagoD Tower, Bitches! every time it is referenced.

BlueFairlane

I don't recall the actual amount of floor space Willis rented, though 150K might be about right. Regardless, it was some absurdly small percentage of the 4 million square feet of rentable space in the tower, something much smaller than that rented by, say Ernst & Young.

Jeff

I think it would be funny/depressing if they sold the actual building but retained the naming rights.

Kevin Apgar

Wouldn't it be great if *no matter who* the new investors were, they changed the name back to Sears Tower anyway? Oh the good will fostered by that move!

ophmarketing

Should that come to pass, I will—no questions asked—purchase whatever products, services, or classified state secrets said company sells.