Historic Metal Building Sale Upsets Architect

Historic Metal Building Sale Upsets Architect
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Commercial Steel Building
Metal Building History
Two years ago, some investors used the star power of architect Frank Gehry to help them buy Chicago's Inland Steel Building with plans to update the landmark structure and preserve its unique character.
Now those same investors are trying to sell the historic metal building - much to the architect's dismay.
"When you buy a landmark, you have a certain responsibility," Gehry said to the Chicago Tribune. "It upsets me that these guys are taking the easy way out. To just dump it on the market isn't responsible."
In August 2005 a group of investors that included Harvey Camins paid $44.5 million for the commercial steel building, and Gehry wound up with roughly a 3 percent stake without putting any money into the deal.
"I'm sorry he feels that way," Camins said.
"We bought the building as a real estate investment and because we all love it. But the market is such today that we must explore a sale."
Sale prices have jumped 19 percent in the past 12 months in the downtown office market, and it's tempting for property owners to take advantage of the fabulous run-up in real estate values.
But Gehry got involved in the purchase because the 19-story steel building, finished in 1958, is an historical and architectural landmark and one of his favorites. He's angry and disappointed that it's back on the block, its fate uncertain.
"I am not taking advantage of the market. I got into this to save the building," Gehry said. "I don't want to be linked to such opportunism.
"It's one of my favorite buildings, and the only reason it was sold to someone like me was to preserve it," added Gehr.
The metal building is expected to sell for about $55 million and is being marketed by Eastdil Secured.
"We've invested $2 million to upgrade the corridors, bathrooms," said Camins. "We brought the lobby back to its original luster and installed a new security desk. We've been aggressively marketing it, but Chicago is recovering from a very tough market."
In 2005 the building had a 2 percent vacancy rate, but its largest tenant, Mittal Steel, has since moved out and the structure is now 19.3 percent vacant, according to CoStar Group Inc.
Despite that problem, the first downtown office designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill LLP is likely to fetch a handsome price.
The recent rapid appreciation of downtown property is set to accelerate even more in coming weeks when the Chicago portfolio of the former Equity Office Properties Trust is sold.
But for Gehry, who said he might receive about $240,000 from a sale, the steel building price isn't the issue.
"It's an important building," Gehry said of the first skyscraper to be built with a steel-and-glass cladding and column-free interior space, and on steel pilings rather than on concrete.
For 50 years, Gehry has admired what was once the headquarters of Inland Steel. In 2005, then-owner St. Paul Travelers Cos. wasn't interested in selling until it learned that Gehry was among the suitors.
"I thought they would update it in the spirit of the design and that I'd help bring it up," Gehry said Thursday of his ownership group