Tribune Tower No Longer For Sale
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Feb 25, 2009 10:45PM
Blaming the tanking real estate market and their bankruptcy-protection case, the Tribune Company has pulled the Tribune Tower off the market. Damn, and we almost had enough to make it the new Chicagoist HQ. The Trib Company had hired a broker to unload both the Tribune Tower and Times Mirror Square, the HQ for the LA Times, but with the economy spiraling further and further down the drain, the sales have been put on ice.
Finding a buyer for the 940,000-square-foot gothic tower at 435 N. Michigan Ave. would be unlikely in a market where no big downtown office building has sold since last July. If Vegas was taking odds, a sale probably would be a much longer shot than Tribune’s baseball team ending its 100-year drought and winning the World Series.“Impossible,” Robert Six, executive vice-president with Chicago-based real estate investment firm Zeller Realty Corp., says of the tower’s chances of being sold any time soon.
He notes the site includes the tower and a one-acre parking lot. “It would take tremendous patience and deep pockets to be able to acquire the site and wait for the next uptick in the commercial real estate market.”
Stephanie Pater, Tribune’s director of real estate, insists no matter the market, selling the building would have been difficult but the economy certainly didn't help. “I don’t think anybody is looking to get into any real estate deal — big or small. Is this a big one? Yes. Is it a development opportunity? It could be.”