Harp Maker Lists West Loop Repositioning Play

A Chicago harp company wants to harmonize with a potential buyer, as it looks to offload its longtime five-story home on the western edge of Fulton Market.

Lyon & Healy Harps has hired KWill RE brokers Marco Federow, Matt Knafel and Hugh Williams to sell its building at 168 North Ogden Avenue, CoStar reported. No asking price has been revealed, but the property is expected to formally hit the market soon.

Lyon & Healy plans to vacate the 58,000-square-foot site and move nearly eight miles west to an industrial building at 6500 West Cortland Street, which it purchased for just over $4 million in November 2021. The company plans to relocate by early 2024.

Fulton Market has seen a surge of new developments, both commercial and residential, in recent years, making it perhaps the hottest neighborhood in Chicago. However, a number of businesses that have long been based in the former meatpacking district have been prompted to move as the area gets overtaken with flashier, high-end developments. Lyon & Healy manufactured its first instrument on the same block of Ogden Avenue in 1889.

KWill RE is marketing the site as a reuse opportunity, rather than a demolition-rebuild project.

“This is a beautiful building that is part of Chicago history,” Federow told the outlet. “Someone will take this building into the future, whether it’s an office or multifamily development.”

Ogden was traditionally seen as the western limit of Fulton Market, yet some developers have pushed the boundaries of the real estate boom beyond, including when Marquette Management developed and sold the 242-unit Evo Union Park apartment building at 1454 West Randolph Street.

To help offset the costs of its relocation, Lyon & Healy told city officials earlier this year that it planned to increase its workforce from 133 employees at the current site to 165 at the new location, making the company eligible for certain property tax incentives.

Lyon & Healy’s instruments have been used by musicians ranging from the New York Philharmonic to the Bolshoi Ballet, the outlet reported, citing the harp maker’s website.

— Quinn Donoghue