New York-based 601W Companies, the owner of Chicago’s Old Post Office, has teamed up with David Werner Real Estate to scoop up the 22-story office tower at 175 W. Jackson Blvd. in the Loop for about $41 million. The Daniel Burnham-designed behemoth spans roughly 1.4 million square feet, putting the deal at about $29 per square foot, a massive drop from the roughly $306 million Brookfield paid in 2018. The bargain gives the buyers a low basis, but also hands them a hefty leasing and repositioning project if they want to bring the building back toward fuller occupancy.
Deal basics and a half-empty tower
The joint venture closed on the building for about $41 million, according to CoStar. JLL marketing materials showed the property was sitting at roughly 47% leased in mid-2025, leaving more than half the space dark. JLL brokers Jaime Fink, Bruce Miller, and Sam DiFrancesca represented the seller, according to the same report.
Financing the comeback attempt
The buyers lined up a $58.5 million loan from Northwind Group, according to Crain's Chicago Business. That debt package included $33.5 million for the acquisition and $25 million earmarked for leasing costs and tenant improvements, fuel for a long-haul effort to refill the tower. Ran Eliasaf, Northwind's founder, told Crain's that "Northwind is excited to expand its relationship with the sponsors and provide financing to revitalize occupancy."
Why was the price so brutal
Brookfield bought the building for about $306 million in 2018, then poured roughly $24 million into upgrades and carried a roughly $280 million mortgage that was bundled into CMBS. The loan's trustee filed a foreclosure suit in 2022, a sequence that knocked down the building's market value, according to CoStar. With downtown office demand soft and several tenants cutting back their footprints, buyers like 601W and Werner are now able to step in at steep discounts and take their time repositioning troubled assets.
Where this fits in 601W's playbook
The 175 W. Jackson deal slots neatly into a run of discounted, opportunistic buys by 601W and David Werner. The same partnership paid just under $63 million for 303 E. Wacker Drive late in 2024, a transaction that also involved Northwind financing, according to reporting by Bisnow. The playbook is straightforward: pick up high-quality locations on a reset basis, then lean on active asset management and aggressive leasing to capture the upside.
What to watch next at 175 W. Jackson
David Werner has framed the purchase as a classic reset-basis move, saying "this acquisition continues our thesis of high-quality assets in strong locations at a reset basis," in a statement reported by Crain's Chicago Business. The building's near-term health will largely depend on how quickly the new owners can land fresh tenants and backfill looming losses. Crain's notes that Wolverine Trading is set to vacate roughly 88,000 square feet when its lease expires in May 2027. The question now is whether 601W and Werner can turn their rock-bottom purchase price into real occupancy gains before more space comes back to market.
