CME close to selling Chicago Board of Trade building
By David Roeder Business Reporter February 9, 2012 11:18AM
The Chicago Board of Trade Building is viewed from Wacker. Sun-Times file photo
Article Extras
Updated: March 11, 2012 8:46AM
Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain who lords it over Chicago’s La Salle Street, is about to be sold along with the building beneath her.
CME Group Inc., owner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, is nearing an agreement to sell its landmark home, a source said Thursday.
The deal would involve the Chicago Board of Trade Building at 141 W. Jackson and its southern addition. CME would keep operations there, including its agricultural trading floor, and lease back the space it needs.
The 45-story Board of Trade building is an Art Deco design topped by a statue of Ceres. It serves as an exclamation point for one of the best-known vistas of Chicago architecture, the southerly look along the La Salle Street canyon.
The source said CME is finalizing an agreement to sell the office building to GlenStar Properties LLC, USAA Real Estate Co. and a Canadian pension fund for from $150 million to $180 million. GlenStar owns several office buildings in Chicago and its suburbs.
The price would be substantially less than what CME hoped to get for the building when it listed it for sale last summer. At the time, experts speculated the property was worth as much as $250 million, but the European debt crisis has made investors nervous about large-scale deals for commercial property.
Also, the failed brokerage MF Global was a major tenant. Its bankruptcy dealt the building a financial blow.
A spokesman for CME declined to comment and representatives of the buyers could not be reached. Last summer, CME Chief Financial Officer James Parisi said the sale would generate cash the company could use to “reinvest in our core derivatives business.”
The space being sold contains about 1.4 million square feet, much of its leased to trading firms. CME has said it intends to lease back 150,000 square feet for 15 years.
It will retain ownership of an east addition, containing 288,000 square feet, that holds a trading floor for financial products.
After the Chicago Mercantile Exchange acquired the Chicago Board of Trade in 2007, it consolidated its trading pits onto the CBOT floors. More than 80 percent of the futures exchanges’ business now takes place over computer networks.
Designed by the firm Holabird & Root, the Board of Trade building is both a city and national historic landmark. For more than 30 years, it was the tallest building in Chicago.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment