The landlord of 35 W. Wacker Drive, a 50-story office tower in downtown Chicago, has been hit with a $236 million foreclosure lawsuit. The filing adds another high-dollar legal fight to a downtown office market that has been reeling from falling property values and mounting loan defaults.
The lawsuit was first reported Thursday by Crain's Chicago Business, which identified the $236 million figure tied to the Wacker Drive property. A related account from The Real Deal indicates that CommunityAmerica Credit Union sued to foreclose on the loan behind the building, also known as the Leo Burnett Building, claiming an affiliate had defaulted. The full allegations in the complaint, the specific loan terms, and the case's procedural status have not been independently confirmed.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Downtown Distress
The 35 W. Wacker filing lands amid a string of similar legal and financial troubles hitting Chicago office towers over the past several months. Earlier in 2026, a West Loop landlord was hit with its own $310 million foreclosure lawsuit, according to the same Chicago business outlet, which noted that even a well-leased office tower at 540 W. Madison St. wasn't safe from foreclosure proceedings.
Just weeks before that, the Illinois Center office complex at 111 E. Wacker Drive was headed toward a foreclosure auction. That report described the lingering financial strain on the downtown office market following years of weakened demand and higher borrowing costs.
A Skyscraper Loan Default Earlier This Year
The distress isn't confined to foreclosure lawsuits alone. 601W Companies defaulted on a $343 million loan tied to the 40-story One South Wacker Drive building on June 9, according to Bloomberg. The outlet reported that 601W Companies had purchased that skyscraper in 2018 for about $310 million, and it described Chicago commercial real estate values broadly as having tumbled in the wake of the pandemic.
That decline in values has become a recurring backdrop for downtown Chicago's office sector, with landlords across multiple buildings now facing lender actions tied to loans originated before the market shifted.
Not Every Tower Is Struggling
The picture isn't uniformly bleak. At the Jewelers Building, a separate downtown tower at 35 E. Wacker Drive, occupancy climbed to about 70% after new ownership stepped in, up from roughly 60% when the buyers agreed to acquire it, per CoStar. Prime Group and CRG completed a $35.5 million purchase of that building in August 2024, backed by a $32.3 million loan from East West Bank.
That turnaround followed its own rocky stretch. The Jewelers Building's previous longtime owner, Canadian firm Dorchester Group, failed to pay off its loan when it matured in 2023 and was hit with a foreclosure suit of its own, according to the same CoStar report. The building's leasing rebound since the 2024 sale offers one example of how new ownership and fresh capital can stabilize a property after financial trouble, even as other downtown towers, including 35 W. Wacker, now face their own foreclosure fights.
