![]() “It was always a magical place,” said Oak Park resident Lynn Olson, 62, who regularly took her kids to American Girl, telling them it was a museum in the hopes of not having to buy them an expensive doll. You go in now, and it’s the saddest place on earth.” It was ahead of its time it was like an event. ![]() “My mom would get annoyed, she wanted to take us to the museum. “That’s where we would go,” said Sara Homrok, 47, who grew up in Naperville. Chicago Sun-Times collection, Chicago History MuseumĪnd of course, the building was located on the “Magnificent Mile.” It was the American Dream, housed in steel, glass and marble. The bucket was then hoisted by crane to the top. Daley placed corn kernels, a vial of oil, a vial of wine and a chip of concrete from the Water Tower in the last bucket of cement for the mall. Daley presiding over the topping out ceremony for Water Tower Place in 1975. Although in-store sales actually outpaced online sales nationally in 2021, and tourism is creeping upward, convention business is sparse, and only 39% of downtown workers are back at the office, according to Kastle, a workplace security company. The causes are familiar: competition from internet sales, and two years of pandemic shutdowns and restrictions that dramatically reduced tourism and downtown foot traffic. Whether the block-wide, gray marble-clad building at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Pearson can be transformed is a question with impact up and down the Magnificent Mile, where the vacancy rates have doubled in recent years to more than 24%. A new tenant from the city’s cultural sphere may be a step in the right direction. The 800,000-square- foot Water Tower Place is trying to find its mojo again, a tall order, but a critical one for this landmark shopping mecca that sits in the middle of the most important retail district in the city, the Magnificent Mile. As iconic as the vertical mall was in its heyday, it is symbolic today in an entirely different way as a poster child, in its vacant storefronts, for the woes besetting retail. It was a stunning move, but not entirely unexpected. ![]() In the Chicago area, Brookfield still owns the Oakbrook Center and Northbrook Court malls.So it came as a bit of a surprise this April when Brookfield Property Partners, one of the largest commercial real estate companies in the world - and the owner of the building - simply handed over the keys to the bank that held its $300 million loan, like some distressed homeowner who lost his job and was underwater on the mortgage to his local bank. After many discussions to carefully assess and identify all available options to move forward, we’ve determined that it is best to focus Brookfield’s resources on other opportunities within our portfolio.” She provided a statement that said, “Water Tower Place will no longer be part of Brookfield’s portfolio. ![]() We look forward to discussing the future of this iconic shopping destination with our clients and other key stakeholders.”īrookfield spokesperson Lindsay Kahn declined to discuss the transaction, first reported by Crain’s Chicago Business. While we cannot comment on specifics of this transaction, MetLife Investment Management has a proven track record in institutional real estate and a dedicated team in the Chicago area. ![]() Numerous other retailers closed for good at the mall, including the Foodlife food hall, Mity Nice Bar & Grill, Gap and Banana Republic.ĭave Franecki, spokesman for MetLife Investment Management, provided this statement: “Water Tower Place is a high-quality real estate asset that is well-positioned in the Chicago market. ![]()
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