Golub/Whitehall Acquire John Hancock Center

GOLUB, WHITEHALL FUNDS JOINT VENTURE ACQUIRES CHICAGO’S JOHN HANCOCK CENTER


Chicago, IL (January 22, 2007) – A joint venture between affiliates of Chicago-based Golub & Company and the Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds has purchased the commercial components of the 100-story, mixed-use John Hancock Center in Chicago, said Michael Newman, president and chief executive officer of Golub & Company. The seller is San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties LLC. The price was not disclosed.

The purchase includes the building’s 880,000 square feet of office space on floors 13 through 41; 153,000 square feet of retail space on the lower-level concourse and floors 1 through 5; a 710-stall parking garage on floors 6 through 12; an observatory that is a top Chicago tourist attraction; rooftop broadcast antennas; and a large public plaza. About 700 residential condominiums occupying the remaining floors are not part of the acquisition.
Rising 1,127 feet at 875 North Michigan Avenue, John Hancock Center is Chicago’s third-tallest building and currently the world’s 16th tallest.

The transaction is the first joint venture between Golub & Company and Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds. Lehman Brothers provided financing for the acquisition. Golub & Company will serve as manager and leasing agent for the building.
“This building is obviously a significant portfolio addition for both our company and Whitehall,” said Newman. “As partners with a shared goal for this unique property, we have the opportunity for creative marketing and repositioning at a time when North Michigan Avenue is experiencing a tremendous surge in its appeal to commercial tenants of all types. We will work closely with local brokers and tenants to ignite interest in the available office space.” Approximately 26 percent of the office space is available for lease at this time.

Completed in 1969, John Hancock Center was designed by famed architect Bruce Graham of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. SOM’s Fazlur Khan was the visionary structural engineer whose X-bracing and tapered shape for the steel, aluminum and glass building brought it worldwide renown. The building was extensively renovated in 1995.

Along with Michael Newman, Golub & Company’s Michael Goldman, senior vice president of finance and acquisitions structured and negotiated the transaction. The Chicago office of Eastdil Secured LLC represented Shorenstein in the transaction.
The law firms representing the parties to the transaction were DLA Piper and Sullivan & Cromwell for the buyer and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman for the seller.
 
Currently available at John Hancock Center are office suites ranging from 500 to 100,000 contiguous square feet. Golub & Company’s John Ferguson, senior vice president of leasing and marketing, will oversee the office leasing program. For leasing information, call 312-440-8800.

Chicago-based Golub & Company (www.golubandcompany.com) and its affiliates are active internationally in real estate development, acquisitions, asset and property management, leasing and corporate real estate services. Overall, since its founding more than 45 years ago, the company has owned, leased or managed more than 30 million square feet of commercial and multifamily real estate properties.

The Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds are a family of opportunistic real estate funds sponsored and managed by Goldman Sachs. The Whitehall Funds have been investing in real estate and real estate-related assets worldwide since 1991.