Historic 55 East Jackson Office Tower in Chicago Listed for Roughly $11 Million, Down From $64 Million

The historic 22-story office building at 55 East Jackson Boulevard in Chicago's Loop is up for sale with bids expected to reach only about $11 million, or $25 per square foot, far below the $64 million Firenze Group paid for it in 2019, Crain's reported, citing sources familiar with the offering. The 452,000-square-foot tower is vacant except for a Starbucks and a Potbelly on the ground floor. A Cook County judge appointed CNR Advisors as receiver, which hired CBRE brokers David Knapp and Maurycy Filecki to market the property, emphasizing redevelopment potential. Lender Ready Capital filed a $62 million foreclosure lawsuit against Firenze in 2024 before dismissing it and abandoning the building. The building was 95 percent leased before the pandemic; DePaul University, its largest tenant, exited in 2022, a year before Firenze's mortgage matured, leading to defaults on both its mortgage and ground lease. The building was designated a Chicago landmark in 2012.