Lender Takes LaSalle Street Tower After Auction Strikeout

Lender American General Life Insurance will snag control of 30 North LaSalle Street from AmTrust Realty as the distressed Loop office tower heads toward redevelopment.

The lender, a subsidiary of New York-based American International Group, was the sole taker for the property, after no competing parties matched the $34.7 million minimum bid at an auction held by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday as the conclusion to a foreclosure proceeding.

The change in ownership set up by the auction marks a far cry from what the 988,000-square-foot building used to be worth — New York-based AmTrust bought it in 2014 for nearly $238 million. According to the foreclosure lawsuit filed last year, owner AmTrust Realty fell behind on paying its $165 million mortgage on the property, and ended up owing the AIG subsidiary more than $180 million after interest and fees.

AmTrust didn’t fight the lender’s foreclosure, with president Jonathan Bennett previously telling The Real Deal through a spokesperson that “30 North LaSalle presented extreme challenges that were insurmountable at its current valuation,” and that the firm was focusing its efforts on unlocking the latent value at its other Chicago properties.

The landlord had previously announced a plan to spend $100 million across its portfolio of Loop office buildings — which includes 33 West Monroe Street, the two-building Illinois Center property in the East Loop, and the 41-story 1 East Wacker Drive — but has since scratched 30 North LaSalle off the list of properties set to benefit from the capital infusion.

An attorney representing American General Life Insurance said she was unable to comment on the minimum bid price or the lender’s plans for the property. AIG did not respond to a request for comment.

The tower is the target of one of five office-to-residential conversion proposals selected to receive public funding for the redevelopment by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration under her “LaSalle Street Reimagined” initiative.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration has not yet made a public statement on the status of the program, though a city Planning Department spokesperson previously said the city is moving forward with all five proposals and that the initiative is in the underwriting phase.

The development team, which includes AIG affiliate Corebridge Financial and Chicago-based Golub & Co., has proposed a $143 million project that would convert the more-than-half vacant office tower into 349 apartments.

A Corebridge spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, and a Golub executive was unavailable for comment Thursday.