Thor Equities got $26 million for the two retail floors it owned inside 36 South State Street, 14 years after the company bought entire 19-story building for $10.35 million.
The New York-based developer sold the 18,800-square-foot retail space to Jenel Management Corporation, giving Jenel its 19th Chicago property and its second in the Loop, Thor executives announced Monday.
Shortly after Thor bought the building in 2004, it renovated the property and sold its upper floors to WOW Development LLC for $9 million. WOW then converted the space from offices to condos.
Thor had been leasing out the building’s bottom floors to national retail brands since. Today, the space is occupied by Verizon, T-Mobile and Blick Art Materials.
The sale was brokered by Michael Marks of Cushman & Wakefield. Thor hired Cushman to list the property in April.
Thor, which is based in New York and owns retail properties across the U.S. and Europe, has been steadily shedding Downtown properties and shifting its focus to Fulton Market since 2016. Most recently, Thor rolled out plans to build a 20-story office-and-retail building at Halsted and Fulton streets.
But a spokesperson for Thor said the company plans to retain ownership of the Palmer House Hilton, whose 1,639 rooms and 28,000 square feet of retail sit across the street from 36 South State, for the long haul. Earlier this year, Thor took out a $427 million loan on the hotel, and it signed three retailers to leases combining for more than 20,000 square feet.
Among Jenel’s other Chicago properties is a renovated building in the Gold Coast where it is planning to bring in a Van Cleef & Arpels luxury jeweler.