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According to a recent announcement, Tribune Media lists for sale Chicago’s emblematic Tribune Tower, a 36-story high office building located on Michigan Avenue in one of the city’s most crowded shopping districts.
The building, which was completed in 1925 and owned ever since by Chicago Tribune’ and Los Angeles Times’ former parent company Tribune media, sits on three acres of land. Its owner partnered with real estate banking company Eastdil Secured to either find a buyer for the historic building or a partner that can help the company redevelop the it.
We learned that Tribune Media lists for sale Chicago’s emblematic Tribune Tower on Thursday from the building’s owner. The company also said that it plans to monetize the building and surrounding land, and turn them into a retail center. Tribune Tower also has hundreds of feet of frontage on one of world’s busiest and most dynamic commercial avenues.
Tribune Real Estate’s head Murray McQueen announced Thursday that the building’s location and prestige make it a site with unprecedented development potential. The building’s owner now hopes that many private and public investors may be interested in the tower. On Feb.1, 1989, the tower was listed as one of Chicago’s landmarks.
Currently, the neo-Gothic building is home to the Chicago Tribune, WGN Radio, Tribune Media, and the Howells & Hood restaurant. It has more than 700,000 square feet of space but it is zoned for 1.7 million more.
Tribune Tower was built between 1923 and 1925 after Chicago Tribune launched a design contest for its headquarters. More than 260 projects were submitted, and $100,000 worth or prizes were awarded for the best entries.
The first prize was won by two architects from New York named John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood. The duo’s neo-gothic building impressed just about everyone at the newspaper with its crown of spires, buttresses, and gargoyles. The team was awarded $50,000, while the second prize went to the critics’ favorite, ‘Saarinen’s tower,’ whose architect received $20,000.
McQueen added that the building has more linear frontage along Chicago’s busiest commercial avenues than Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue in NYC. This is why the building may have tremendous potential for retail business
Tribune Media ditched Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune among other newspapers last year to focus on the businesses with higher margin such as real estate. The company also has plans to redevelop Times Mirror Square in LA and other sites in Florida and California.
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