W
.P. Carey is putting a 227,500-square-foot downtown Chicago office building on the market after scrapping plans for a major expansion due to weak demand in the city's urban core. The New York-based real estate investment trust has hired Cushman & Wakefield to find a buyer for the property at 550 West Randolph Street. Insiders suggest the asking price could be between $15 million and $20 million, translating to $65-$88 per square foot.

    The building, constructed in 1909, has served various purposes over the years, including as a warehouse for McKesson & Robbins. W.P. Carey acquired it in 1990 and leased it to data analytics firm IRI until its departure in 2020. Despite being close to the Ogilvie Transportation Center, the property has remained vacant since then.

    W.P. Carey had proposed significant renovations and an expansion to revive the property but ultimately abandoned those plans due to shifting market conditions exacerbated by the pandemic. Many downtown landlords are struggling to fill vacant space following the decline in office demand caused by remote-work patterns. Chicago's downtown office vacancy rate rose to 26.3% in the fourth quarter, more than double its pre-pandemic level.

    W.P. Carey plans to focus on industrial and retail properties once it fully exits the Chicago office market. The company's portfolio consists of over 1,430 properties spanning 172 million square feet, along with 78 self-storage properties.