Thursday’s announcement that Chicago-based Tribune Media had hired real estate banking company Eastdil Secured to “begin exploring strategic monetization alternatives for Tribune Tower and adjacent land” was reminiscent of a similar declaration by Sam Zell, the real estate magnate who took Tribune Company private and dragged it into bankruptcy.
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Chicago’s landmark gothic-revival Tribune Tower is now being marketed by the Tribune Real Estate Holdings LLC, in the hopes of converting the famous tower into cash.
The tower was designated a city landmark in 1989.
The building now resides on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue within three acres.
Tribune had previously announced concepts for expanding the property, which despite being zoned for 1.4 million square feet of commercial space, only encompasses 737,000 square feet now.
The building was completed in 1925, after a global competition seeking designs for the Chicago Tribune newspaper’s new headquarters, according to the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s website. The duo’s neo-gothic building impressed just about everyone at the newspaper with its crown of spires, buttresses, and gargoyles.
“This property offers 100 linear feet more frontage on Michigan Avenue than Rockefeller Center has on Fifth Avenue in New York City”, McQueen said.
The sale comes about a year after Tribune Company spunoff its print assets, including the Chicago Tribune, into a separate company named Tribune Publishing.
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Tribune Real Estate is also looking at redeveloping Times Mirror Square in Los Angeles and sites in Costa Mesa, Calif.as well as in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Chicago Tribune reported on Thursday.
