North America’s Tallest building is on the Market

Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower, located in downtown Chicago is up for sale. The 110-story building is the highest in North America and the decision to sell or recapitalize comes in light of the rising CRE values seen in the country’s top markets.

The owners, including two New York based real-estate investors, acquired the building in 2004 for a measly $840 million. The name-change came as a result of leasing office space to the British insurance broker “Willis Group Holdings.”

The Willis tower is not expected to go for an inordinate amount of money but this recent move shows that office-building values have been recovering enough to consider the option of recapitalizing. Recent sales such as that of the office tower in Chicago reflect this. It sold for $500 a square foot- almost double what the Willis Tower was sold for in 2004.

About 18.3% of the Willis Tower’s 3.8 million square feet is vacant but that is a significant improvement over the 27% vacancy rate when it was first acquired by the Willis Group. There is, of course, the looming competition between newer buildings as well as the building’s famed height. The goal of the owners, though, is essentially to “make a strong building even stronger.”

All information gathered from The Wall Street Journal.