Crain's: Sterling Bay could get $450 million for McDonald's headquarters building

The 575,000-square-foot West Loop building that is home to McDonald’s headquarters is on the market.

Block Club Chicago reported that the Gensler-designed glass-fronted building at 110 N. Carpenter is for sale by its owners, Sterling Bay Developers and J.P. Morgan.

The nine-story building, which sits the property that once housed Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios, could bring as much as $450 million, according to an estimate by Crain’s. Sterling Bay purchased the property for $32 million in 2014 and completed the current building two years ago.

McDonald’s has only been in the building for two years, having moved to Chicago from Oakbrook. Its lease on the building is good for another 13 years, however.

According to Block Club Chicago, Sterling Bay has been both shedding and developing Chicago properties in recent years. It sold Google headquarters (purchased as a cold-storage facility for $12 million in 2012) to American Realty Advisors four years later for a whopping $257 million. Last year, Sterling sold its headquarters, located at 1330 W. Fulton Market St., for $175 million; and in March of that yea,r it put the Ace Hotel on the market with an asking price of $100 million.

Meanwhile, Sterling has been busy developing three office towers on North Green Street, and it recently received Chicago City Council approval to build an 11-story office building on North Morgan Street.

Additionally, the council approved Sterling’s application to build an 18-story office tower at 1000 W. Carroll Ave. The company has applied to build an additional 14-story building nearby at 1200 W. Carroll Ave.

The McDonald’s-headquarters building currently for sale also includes street-level retail space, currently occupied by a Walgreen’s, a FedEx store, and Politan Row, a food hall designed to showcase innovative international cuisines developed by professional chefs.

JLL Capital Markets is seeking buyers for the building.