RREEF is Top Bidder for 1.3M-SF UBS Tower

CHICAGO-Parties involved in the sale confirm UBS Tower has been sold, though the sales price, reportedly $415 million, is not revealed. If that number was achieved by joint venture partners Lend Lease Real Estate and The John Buck Co., it cracks the $300-per-sf barrier, a high-water mark for the market.

The buyer is pension fund buyer RREEF, now owned by Deutsche Bank, AG. Lend Lease and Buck put the asset on the market this summer, less than a year after the 1.3-million-sf tower, 51-story at 1 N. Wacker Dr. was completed. The property changes hands with 92% of the space leased, with anchor tenant UBS joined by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Merrill Lynch and Options Clearing Corp.

The John Buck Co., which already has started work on another office tower a short walk south on Wacker Drive, stays on as property manager.

Blake Johnson and Steve Livaditis of Eastdil Realty Co. brokered the deal, which is just one Downtown office sale that has been in the works. Besides two Central Loop office buildings owned by Metropolitan Life that have generated significant interest, 311 S. Wacker Dr. also has been on the block.

Lend Lease Real Estate and The John Buck Co. put the building on the market after receiving unsolicited offers for the property.