An Italian conglomerate is moving in on a cluster of office properties near Fulton Market, including the long-standing loft office at 600 West Fulton Street. The deal continues to pull outside capital into the West Loop as owners look to reposition older office buildings in a tighter local submarket.
As reported by Crain's Chicago Business on March 9, the buyer is Italy-based Bolton Group, which is acquiring at least one Fulton Market-area office building. Crain's identified the 600 West Fulton property as part of the transaction but did not include a purchase price in its initial report.
What the buyer is acquiring
600 West Fulton is a nine-story, roughly 215,000-square-foot loft office that was marketed last year by investor Randy Rissman, according to The Real Deal. That reporting noted the building had been offered as a discount play amid a sizable loan coming due and was only partially leased when it hit the market.
Why Fulton Market still draws buyers
Fulton Market remains one of the tightest office submarkets in Chicago, where new Class A projects and amenity-rich conversions have kept demand concentrated, according to WBEZ. That combination of modern office product and historic loft space helps explain why an international buyer might be willing to bet on repositioning older buildings for a new mix of tenants.
What landlords might do next
New owners commonly refresh lobbies, upgrade tenant amenities and tweak leasing incentives to compete with newer projects. The building’s leasing site highlights updated common areas, a fitness center and transit access, the same kinds of features buyers typically emphasize when chasing higher occupancy and rents; the marketing materials are available on the 600 West Fulton property site.
Crain's did not provide financial terms when it first reported the deal, and the initial coverage left several transactional details limited. Observers will be watching whether this signals more cross-border appetite for Chicago office assets and what a new owner might do to re-lease vacant floors in the coming months.
