12-Nov-16 – The sale of six vintage office buildings and three lots, a deal worth $86 million, includes a building in River North. 445 West Erie Street, a two-story, 52,905 square foot office and retail building, was part of a deal announced this week by KIG, a commercial real estate brokerage firm. The buyer is the real estate investment firm R2.

The other buildings are in the Greektown, Printers Row, and West Loop neighborhoods. They were all built between 1883 and 1903 and collectively are 90 percent occupied. The seller is Loft Development Corporation, which was represented by Susan Tjarksen, a principal of KIG and its managing broker.

“For a transaction of this scale,” said Tjarksen, “it was crucial for KIG to find a buyer that was not only familiar with these neighborhoods, but also had the connections and experience necessary to maximize the value of the underlying real estate through adaptive reuse and multifamily developments.”

76-year-old Owen Deutsch, chairman and CEO of Loft Development Corporation and a former commercial fashion photographer, sold his entire portfolio of office buildings on November 4, reportedly, to travel the world, photographing birds.

(Left) A Scarlet Macaw, photographed in Costa Rica by Owen Deutsch.