Indiana Governor Mike Braun discusses the Chicago Bears’ possible move to Indiana, highlighting Indiana’s business-friendly climate and contrasting it with Illinois’ high taxes and regulations in “The Bottom Line.”
Office towers that once sold for hundreds of millions of dollars are now changing hands at discounts of 70%, 80%, even 90% in major U.S. cities as higher interest rates and remote work reshape demand for downtown space.
Few places illustrate the shift more starkly than Chicago. There the price reductions cover every development era, first according to the figures tweeted by Nightingale Associates.
A century-old office building in the city’s historic Printing House Row district, 401 S. State St., recently sold for just $4.2 million, down from $68.1 million in 2016, a 94% drop.
The prominent Loop tower at 311 S. Wacker Drive traded at an 85% discount, selling for $45 million, compared to $302 million in 2014.
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People look out at the skyline from a frozen North Avenue Beach on January 24, 2026 in Chicago. (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Even newer, high-profile properties haven’t been immune. Boeing’s long-term lease interest in 100 N. Riverside Plaza, and not the tower itself, sold for $22 million, down from $165 million in 2005, an 87% decline.
And at 300 W. Adams St., a leasehold interest in the building changed hands for just $4 million, compared to $51 million in 2012 — a 92% discount.
Taken together, the deals illustrate how sharply the economics of downtown office real estate have changed in just a few years, as higher interest rates and remote work reshape demand.
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Retail space for lease in downtown Chicago on May 27, 2025. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
The consequences extend beyond landlords and investors. In many major cities, office towers are a cornerstone of the tax base, helping to fund schools, public safety and public transportation. This means that falling real estate values can have an impact on the local economy. budgets.
And Chicago isn’t alone.
Across the country, downtown office buildings are trading at steep discounts. Last year an 18 story Dallas office tower sold for $26.1 million, a 64% discount from its 2016 sales price of $73 million.
In St. Louis, a 44-story tower sold for $4.5 million in 2022, a fraction of the nearly $205 million it fetched in 2006. More recently, an office building in downtown San Jose, California, sold for $23.7 million, well below its 2017 sales price of $80.1 million. In Newton, Massachusetts, a three-building office complex changed hands last year for $117.5 million, about half the sales price. Price of $235 million in 2020.
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Soldier Field prior to the playoff football game between the Los Angeles Rams and Bears on January 18, 2026 in Chicago. (Kara Durrette/Getty Images)
Amid broader uncertainty about the future of downtown, city leaders are also working to preserve key economic anchors, including the Chicago Bears.
The team investigates one possible move to Indianawhere a new stadium could be built near Wolf Lake in Hammond, just across the state line.
As property values decline, city leaders face tough choices: cut services, raise taxes elsewhere or deal with growing budget deficits.
