This developer is willing to take a loss on a Naperville office complex

Even when leasing is going well, it’s tough to be an office landlord in the Chicago suburbs these days.

A nearly fully-leased office complex in Naperville is on the market for about $80 million, roughly $3 million less than it sold for six years ago.

In 2013, a venture of Canadian real estate investment trust Agellan Commercial REIT paid $83.4 million for the two-building Naperville Woods Office Center at 1000 and 1100 E. Warrenville Road. Now Elad Group’s Canadian arm, which acquired Agellan earlier this year in a $400 million deal, is seeking around $80 million for the 482,000-square-foot office complex, according to Crain’s.

The buildings were 97 percent leased when Agellan bought them and they’re now 95 percent leased, a rare show of stability when suburban competitors have seen tenants flee for downtown towers in recent years.

The two buildings were vacant in 2005 after telecommunications equipment company Lucent moved out and sold them for $23 million to a joint venture of Chicago-based M&J Wilkow and a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Cargill. The joint venture spent $13.5 million on renovations and leased it to a number of tenants, including Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois parent company Health Care Service Corp., the complex’s biggest tenant, whose lease runs through 2023. Aldi signed a 10-year lease in 2018 for nearly 118,000 square feet.

The 31-acre Naperville Woods property includes a pair of potential development sites along the highway that could be developed for multifamily and hotel uses, according to a flyer from JLL, which is marketing the property.

[Crain’s] — Brianna Kelly