601W Companies is buying the office tower at 1 South Wacker Drive for $310 million, some 11 percent under the sale price the last time it traded hands.
The New York-based developer is tying up the deal for the 40-story, Helmut Jahn-designed tower with Toronto-based Manulife John Hancock, which paid $344 million for it in 2015, according to Crain’s.
Manulife was said to be seeking $370 million when the property first went on the market in May.
The 36-year-old building is 24 percent vacant, up from 15 percent when Manulife bought it. That’s despite millions of dollars the owner poured into improvements. Accounting firm RSM McGladrey is the largest tenant, with about 220,000 square feet.
Bruce Miller and Nooshin Felsenthal of JLL are representing Manulife in the sale.
601W will add the building to a Chicago portfolio that includes the 2.8 million-square-foot Old Main Post Office, the Aon Center and the Sullivan Center at 1 South State Street, where it bought the office space for $176 million in May. The firm earlier this year sold Prudential Plaza to Chicago developer Sterling Bay for $680 million. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien