Irvine sells One North Wacker to Ortega's Ponte Gadea for $550M

Irvine Company has sold One North Wacker, a 51-story, 1.4 million-square-foot office tower in Chicago, to Ponte Gadea, the family investment firm of Zara founder Amancio Ortega.

Connect CRE reported the sale, citing Crain's, and put the price at about $550 million. The buyer assumes a $353 million CMBS loan that Irvine secured in 2021, according to the report. Bryan Rosenberg of Eastdil Secured Savills brokered the sale.

Irvine bought the tower from Hines Interests in two transactions, in 2011 and 2015, for a total of $539 million, per Connect CRE. The sale price is about $11 million, or roughly 2%, above that combined price. Before that, a Hines Interests venture paid $540 million for the building in 2008.

At about $550 million on 1.4 million square feet, the price works out to roughly $393 a square foot.

The $353 million assumption covers about 64% of the purchase price, implying roughly $197 million of equity from Ponte Gadea before closing costs. The loan's coupon and maturity were not disclosed.

The tower was completed in 2001 by The John Buck Company and is 94% occupied, according to the report. PRED reported in August that Irvine's Chicago offices were 87% leased, a portfolio-level figure covering the landlord's fiscal year. Occupancy at one building and leased percentages across a portfolio are not the same measure.