Onni Group is buying a West Loop office building, placing an $80 million bet on the continued ability of the Downtown office market to fill its growing inventory.
The Vancouver-based developer is under contract to buy the Union Tower at 550 West Van Buren Street from Iowa-based Principal Life Insurance, according to Crain’s.
Union Tower is 91 percent leased, with Huron Consulting Group its largest tenant at 134,000 square feet, Crain’s said. The average occupancy Downtown at the end of 2018 was about 87 percent, barely budging despite the addition of 3 million square feet of new space.
Onni has a number of Chicago projects in the pipeline, including the redevelopment of the Atrium Village apartment complex in Old Town, where it’s trying to win approval for its next phase.
The firm last year also proposed a 356-unit rental tower at 353 West Grand Avenue in River North, and picked up a property at 352 North Union Avenue in the West Loop where 372 apartments were planned. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien