Chicago, Illinois
Cook County gives away what most cities sell: owner names, 2.7 million dated sales with buyer and seller, and — the best find here — a Board of Review file that names the appellant entity behind every appealed commercial tower, which is how Willis Tower's owner can be read off a public record for free.
8 buildings · 8 with an owner established · 13 sources · 7 tier A · 1 tier B · prepared 2026-09-27
Illinois records deeds rather than registering title, and Cook County publishes the resulting record in three free layers. The Assessor's open datasets carry a taxpayer/owner name and mailing address per parcel, and a sales file with price, month, deed type, document number and both buyer and seller names. The Board of Review's appeal decision history names the entity that appealed each assessment, which for large commercial parcels is the owning LLC — often a better owner source than the Assessor's own owner field, which the Assessor warns is 'only intermittently updated'. The Clerk's Recordings System indexes recorded documents by PIN, grantor and grantee free of charge; only copies of the instruments cost money. The hole is Illinois land trusts: title is frequently held by a bank as trustee and the beneficiary is not public, so the register can name a trust number and tell you nothing.
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The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willis Tower 233 S Wacker Dr |
Office | BRE 312 Owner, LLC Cook County Board of Review names BRE 312 Owner, LLC as the appellant on this parcel's 2025 assessment (attorney Crane and Norcross), and cut it from $306,762,250 to $241,578,267. 'BRE' is the standard Blackstone Real Estate entity prefix, but the record itself does not say Blackstone. The Assessor's owner field for this PIN reads only 'PROPERTY TAX'. |
Private equity | —A |
| Aon Center 200 E Randolph St |
Office | 601W Companies Board of Review names '601 W COMPANIES LLC' as appellant for 2024 and 2025; the Assessor's 2024 owner field carries the same name. 2025 assessment $158,234,000, reduced on appeal to $106,043,377. The prior recorded sale was $465,150,000 in 2003 from BRE/Randolph Dr LLC to Wells REIT. |
Private equity | $712,000,000 2015-10 Assessor Parcel Sales: PIN 17103160270000, sale_date 2015-10-30, deed_type Other, doc 1530316022. Buyer and seller names are UNKNOWN in that row; the owner identity comes from the Board of Review and the Assessor's owner field. B |
| THE MART (Merchandise Mart) 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza 3,693,000 sq ft in service (3,697,000 total) |
Mixed use | Vornado Realty Trust 100% Vornado's FY2025 10-K property listing: 'THE MART, Chicago 100.0% Office / Retail / Trade show / Showroom 81.5% 3,693,000'; built 1930, acquired 1998; Schedule III gross carrying amount $911,390 thousand for the MART group. Cook County's Board of Review names 'Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc.' as appellant for 2024 and 2025, cutting the assessment from $106,644,896 to $70,789,385. |
REIT | —A |
| Bank of America Tower 110 N Wacker Dr |
Office | 110 N Wacker Titleholder LLC Board of Review 2025 appellant '110 N WACKER TITLEHOLDER LLC' (2024: '110 NORTH WACKER TITLE'); the Assessor's 2024 owner field for the PIN reads 'RIVERSIDE ID', i.e. Riverside Investment & Development, the developer. 2025 assessment $134,117,251, Cook County's third highest parcel. The building name is not in the county record; the parcel is identified by address. |
Private company | —A |
| Salesforce Tower Chicago (Wolf Point South) 333 W Wolf Point Plaza |
Office | Hines Board of Review 2025 appellant 'Hines'; the 2024 appellant on the same parcel was 'Wolf Point South Owner' and the Assessor's owner field reads 'HINES'. 2025 assessment $114,436,501, reduced to $113,798,082. The record names Hines as the appealing party; it does not set out the joint-venture split. |
Developer | —A |
| Lakeside Technology Center 350 E Cermak Rd |
Industrial | Digital Realty Trust Board of Review 2025 appellant 'DIGITAL REALTY TRUST' (2024: 'DIGITAL LAKESIDE, LLC'); Assessor owner field 'DIGITAL LAKESIDE LLC'. 2025 assessment $90,228,741, reduced to $71,648,741. Digital Realty's FY2025 10-K reports 7 consolidated Chicago data centres at 2,230 thousand net rentable sq ft and Chicago as 7.1% of group annualised rent, its second-largest metro. |
REIT | —A |
| 300 North LaSalle 300 N LaSalle St |
Office | 300 North LaSalle LLC The sales file records the 2014 purchase from KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II's entity; the Board of Review names '300 NORTH LASALLE LLC' as appellant for 2024 and 2025. 2025 assessment $87,347,185, reduced to $63,894,872. |
Private company | $850,000,000 2014-07 Assessor Parcel Sales: PINs 17094050080000 and 17094050040000, doc 1418919085, num_parcels_sale 2, seller KBSII 300 N LASALLE LLC. Sale dates in this file are truncated to the first of the month. A |
| Chase Tower 10 S Dearborn St |
Office | JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Board of Review 2025 appellant 'JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.'; the Assessor's owner field reads 'JPMORGAN CHASE BANK NA'. An owner-occupied headquarters tower. 2025 assessment $71,663,555, reduced to $61,250,000. |
Public company | $145,000,000 2012-09 Assessor Parcel Sales: PIN 17162050160000, doc 1227916111, seller VERIZON CAP CORP — the end of a leveraged-lease structure rather than an open-market tower sale. A further $1 transfer from Wilmington Trust followed in 2018. A |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
The Loop's value shows up cleanly in the certified assessment roll, and the Board of Review file shows how much of it is argued away every year. Two cautions travel with the sales file: dates are truncated to the first of the month, and it contains large keying errors that must be screened out rather than repeated.
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Cook County authorised 5,308 new housing units in calendar 2025 — 1,178 in single-unit buildings, 180 in two-unit, 515 in three-to-four and 3,435 in buildings of five or more (Census Building Permits Survey, county file co2512y). Through August 2026 the year-to-date figure is 3,204. Chicago is therefore a multifamily market at the core and a production-builder market in the collar counties. No builder publishes Chicago-only output and there is no Chicago league table: Pro Builder's Top 200 ranks by revenue and its tables do not render to text, so the figures below are each builder's own reported regional deliveries, and the region is wider than Chicago in every case.
| Name | Type | Homes delivered 2025 (region, not Chicago alone) |
|---|---|---|
| Lennar Corporation FY2025 10-K (year ended 30 Nov 2025): Central segment deliveries 20,492 homes, $7.75bn, ASP $378,000. Central covers Illinois plus ten other states; the 10-K attributes part of the year's change to 'an increase in the number of homes delivered in Alabama, Illinois, South Carolina and Virginia'. Group total 82,583. |
Public company | 20,492 (Central segment)A |
| PulteGroup, Inc. FY2025 10-K: Midwest closings 5,026 units, up 6% on 4,750; Midwest ASP $543,000; group closings 29,572. Brands include Centex, Pulte Homes and Del Webb. |
Public company | 5,026 (Midwest segment)A |
| M/I Homes, Inc. FY2025 10-K: Northern region homes delivered 3,716 (2024: 3,873), ASP $507,000, 94 active communities at year end. The 10-K lists Chicago, Illinois as a Northern division with operations commenced 2007 — one of six markets in that region. |
Public company | 3,716 (Northern region)A |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Chicago's largest landlords split into REITs that disclose floor area in SEC filings and private vehicles that disclose nothing — but the latter still appear by name in Cook County's Board of Review file, with a dollar figure attached. Both kinds are listed below, with the measure each source actually states.
| Name | Type | Chicago floor area, or 2025 Cook County assessed value |
|---|---|---|
| Vornado Realty Trust FY2025 10-K property listing: THE MART, Chicago, 100% owned, 81.5% occupied, in-service 3,693,000 sq ft; largest tenant Motorola Mobility at 609,000 sq ft, lease guaranteed by Google. Plus land at 527 West Kinzie and a 50% retail interest. |
REIT | 3,693,000 sq ftA |
| Digital Realty Trust FY2025 10-K: Chicago 7 consolidated data-centre buildings, 2,230 thousand net rentable sq ft, 565 thousand sq ft active development, 93.9% occupied; a further 3 managed unconsolidated buildings at 1,118 thousand sq ft. Chicago is 7.1% of group annualised rent, second only to Northern Virginia. Schedule III gross carrying amount $1,539,349 thousand. |
REIT | 2,230,000 sq ft across 7 buildingsA |
| 601W Companies Board of Review 2024 and 2025 appellant '601 W COMPANIES LLC' on PIN 17103160270000, reduced to $106,043,377 for 2025. The 2015 recorded price for the parcel was $712,000,000. |
Private equity | $158,234,000 assessed (Aon Center)A |
| Hines Board of Review 2025 appellant 'Hines' on PIN 17094000360000 (333 W Wolf Point Plaza); 2024 appellant 'Wolf Point South Owner'. Two adjacent Wolf Point parcels also carry 'HINES' and 'BIT WOLF POINT WEST' in the Assessor's owner field. |
Developer | $114,436,501 assessed (Wolf Point South)A |
| Health Care Service Corporation Board of Review 2024 and 2025 appellant 'HCSC BLUE CROSS J KAYE' on PIN 17103180340000, reduced to $100,000,000 for 2025; Assessor owner field the same. An owner-occupied headquarters tower, not a let investment. |
Institution | $109,624,501 assessed (300 E Randolph)A |
| Simon Property Group Board of Review 2025 appellant 'Woodfield Mall LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability C[ompany]' on PIN 07132000350000 (1000 E Woodfield Rd, Schaumburg), reduced to $70,353,571; the Assessor's owner field reads 'SIMON PROPERTY GROUP'. The highest-assessed parcel in Cook County outside the city. |
REIT | $99,880,292 assessed (Woodfield Mall)A |
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- That BRE 312 Owner, LLC is a Blackstone Real Estate entity. The Board of Review names only the LLC; 'BRE' is a Blackstone naming convention, which is inference, not record.
- Building names. The county records carry addresses and PINs, not building names; 'Willis Tower', 'Aon Center', 'Chase Tower' and the rest are identifications by address made here.
- Floor counts and floor areas for every tower except THE MART and the Digital Realty portfolio — the Cook County parcel universe has no building-area field and no floors field.
- Willis Tower's 2015 change of ownership. The Parcel Sales file records a 2015-06-05 transfer of PIN 17162160090000 at $300,000,000 with buyer and seller both 'UNKNOWN' (doc 1516242104), which does not match the figure widely reported for that transaction, so no price is stated for it here.
- PIN 17161200100000, Cook County's fourth-highest assessed parcel at $133,177,750: the Assessor prints the address as 310 S Canal St and the owner as National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak, the Union Station landowner), while the Board of Review names '320 S CANAL TITLEHOLDER LLC' as appellant. The building on it is not identified here.
- Whether Cook County's assessed values can be converted to market value on this page — the statutory levels of assessment by class were not opened, so no market-value estimate is published.
Sources
- Assessor - Parcel Addresses (3723-97qp) — Cook County Assessor's Office · openA
- Assessor - Parcel Sales (wvhk-k5uv) — Cook County Assessor's Office · openA
- Assessor - Assessed Values (uzyt-m557) — Cook County Assessor's Office · openA
- Board of Review Appeal Decision History (7pny-nedm) — Cook County Board of Review via Cook County Assessor open data · openA
- Recording Fees (schedule effective 1 April 2024) and Search Recordings / Clerk's Recordings System — Cook County Clerk's Office · openA
- Vornado Realty Trust FY2025 Form 10-K — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- PulteGroup, Inc. FY2025 Form 10-K — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- M/I Homes, Inc. FY2025 Form 10-K — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- Lennar Corporation FY2025 Form 10-K (year ended 30 November 2025) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- Digital Realty Trust FY2025 Form 10-K — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- Building Permits Survey — county file co2512y (calendar 2025) and co2608y (2026 year to date) — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- Terms of Use — Redfin · openA
- Assessor - Parcel Universe (nj4t-kc8j) — Cook County Assessor's Office · openA