A vacant three-story office building at 225 W. Superior St. in River North has changed hands for $5 million, with Schiller Park-based Noah Properties picking up the 42,000-square-foot property as the latest target in Chicago's office-to-residential conversion boom. The company has not disclosed how many apartments it plans to build, or whether it will renovate the existing structure or tear it down for something taller.
Noah Properties bought the building from San Francisco-based ATEL Capital Group, according to The Real Deal, paying roughly $119 per square foot for a property ATEL had marketed as a conversion opportunity for more than two years. The price marks a steep discount from the $7 million ATEL paid for the building back in 2005. The building sat empty after healthcare technology firm GoHealth vacated sometime around 2024.
A Site With Room to Grow
The 0.32-acre lot is zoned DX-5. Brokerage Colliers International had marketed the possibility of building a 13-story apartment high-rise on the site featuring 113,000 square feet, per the same reporting.
Below ground, the building holds 14,000 square feet of space including a 12-space parking garage that could be expanded to 20 spaces, according to PropertyShark. Whether Noah Properties will pursue that kind of ground-up high-rise teardown or opt for a lighter interior renovation of the existing structure remains an open question, per CoStar's reporting.
Noah Already Has Boots on the Ground Nearby
Noah Properties isn't a stranger to this stretch of River North. The developer is already building a 10-story, 56-unit apartment building with 11 affordable units and 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail just down the street at 227 W. Chicago Ave., with a $23.5 million construction loan reported in October 2025, according to Traded. That project sits next to CTA Brown and Purple Line stations, giving the company direct construction know-how and market insight right in its own backyard.
Concrete elevator core construction adjacent to the CTA's elevated tracks was underway by mid-2026, according to Chicago YIMBY.
A Neighborhood Full of Office-to-Apartment Deals
The Superior Street sale lands amid a cluster of similar conversions transforming River North's aging office stock. In July 2026, Concord Capital bought the 113-year-old, 48,000-square-foot Leahy Building at 226 W. Ontario St. for $4.1 million and lined up a $16 million construction loan from First Bank Chicago to convert it into 70 apartments with a two-story rooftop addition, according to Preservation Chicago.
Chicago's City Council approved Concord Capital's $18.4 million conversion of 223 W. Erie St. in October 2025, turning 24 upper-floor office suites into 66 apartments with 13 affordable units and no on-site parking, while keeping ground-floor commercial tenants in place, per Chicago YIMBY. And Monroe Residential Partners recently landed a renovation permit for Birken Lofts at 401 W. Ontario St., turning a four-story office building it bought out of receivership for $5.4 million into 57 apartments, as Hoodline reported.
Why Landlords Are Selling and Parking Is Disappearing
The wave of deals is being driven by weakening office demand, pushing landlords burdened by debt and property taxes to unload underperforming buildings on residential developers, Hoodline previously reported. Nearby, Path Construction and WindWave Real Estate completed a similar conversion at 111 W. Illinois St. in mid-2026, turning former Salesforce office space into apartments known as 111 Point.
One recent River North conversion, 223 W. Erie St., has zero car parking and 35 bike spaces. Whatever direction Noah Properties chooses for 225 W. Superior St., the surrounding blocks suggest apartments, not office cubicles, are the future for this corner of River North.
