Block 37 sells for $30 million to an Orland Park firm that plans to rename the Loop mall

Edwards Realty Company, a commercial real estate firm based in Orland Park, has bought Block 37, the five-story shopping mall on State Street in the Loop, from CIM Group for $30 million. The sale closed on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, and Edwards plans to rebrand the mall under a new name.

The price is roughly a third of the $84 million CIM paid in 2012, when the Los Angeles firm bought the property out of foreclosure, Axios Chicago reported, citing Crain’s. The mall, at 108 N. State St., fills the entire block bounded by State, Washington, Dearborn and Randolph streets.

The deal at a glance

Here are the basics of the sale, as reported this week.

• Edwards bought the retail portion of the Block 37 complex, Bisnow reported.
• The mall has about 278,000 square feet on five floors above a four-level underground parking garage, according to REjournals.
• The building was about 65% leased at the time of the sale, the Sun-Times reported.
• Edwards closed the purchase with Chicago-based Republic Bank, financial partner LFI Energy and The Rose Family Office, according to the Sun-Times.
• Keely Polczynski of Newmark represented CIM in the sale, with support from Brian Schneiderman, REjournals reported.

The low price follows years of trouble filling the building. Axios noted that the mall has drawn little interest from locals or tourists beyond its anchor tenants, and that CIM tried to sell the property at least twice in the past decade. One of those efforts became public in November 2023, when Patch reported that the owners had put the mall up for sale.

What Edwards says comes next

Edwards president Ramzi Hassan has pitched the purchase as a chance to turn a building people walk through into one they visit on purpose. “We’re creating a place they come back to,” he said in a statement quoted by Axios. He told the Sun-Times that he expects the rebrand to wrap up in about six months and that shoppers could notice changes as early as January 1, 2027.

Edwards laid out these plans in interviews and statements this week.

• The mall will get a new name and identity, including a new color palette and new signs, according to the Sun-Times.
• The firm wants a wider mix of national, regional and local stores, along with more restaurants and entertainment.
• Hassan plans an incubator space for small businesses, modeled on partnerships with local entrepreneurs at other Edwards properties.
• Common areas will host brand activations, live performances and other programming, which Axios described as year-round.
• The firm is talking with retailers, restaurants and experience-based operators, and the low purchase price lets Edwards pitch them aggressive lease terms, Bisnow reported.

No new tenants have been named. A spokesperson told Axios that Edwards is not ready to share details about future tenants, and Hassan told the Sun-Times that other unconventional changes would be announced later. He told the paper he measures success by what the property adds to the surrounding community through shopping, dining and services. “It’s as simple as leaving it better than we got it,” he said.

Who Edwards Realty is

Edwards focuses on reviving underperforming mixed-use properties and owns several suburban shopping centers, according to Axios. Block 37 is the firm’s first acquisition in downtown Chicago, the Sun-Times reported, and Hassan told the paper that Edwards had been looking downtown for quite a while. He described the company as a distressed-asset investor that mostly buys retail.

Both the Sun-Times and Bisnow pointed to a shopping center the firm repositioned in west suburban Burr Ridge. Edwards and a partner bought that 200,000-square-foot property in 2019, when the center was about 60% leased. After renovations and a new lineup of tenants, occupancy passed 95% by 2025, Bisnow reported.

What’s in the building now

National chains hold much of the leased space. Axios and the Sun-Times named these tenants in their coverage this week.

• Zara, Sephora and Banana Republic Factory are among the retailers.
• AMC Theatres runs a movie theater in the building.
• Five Iron Golf, an indoor golf chain, has a location in the mall.
• Magnolia Bakery has a shop in the mall, according to Axios.

Two of the food tenants are Chicago independents. Sisters Amy and Clodagh Lawless opened The Dearborn in 2016 at 145 N. Dearborn St., on the Dearborn Street side of the block, according to the restaurant’s website. The tavern has steaks, burgers, tavern-style pizzas and a fish and chips plate that the owners say beat Bobby Flay on Food Network. The restaurant’s posted hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, with weekend brunch until 2:45 p.m. The phone number is (312) 384-1242.

The other is down on the Pedway level. Gayle V’s Best Ever Grilled Cheese started at a Chicago farmers market in 2010, according to the shop’s website, and opened a walk-up counter in Block 37 in February 2016, Time Out Chicago reported at the time. Owner Gayle Voss later moved to a larger space with a dining room at the other end of the Pedway, according to her Green City Market vendor profile. The shop’s website lists hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and the shop is closed Sunday. The phone number is (312) 285-2202.

A block that sat empty for nearly two decades

Block 37 was one of the original 58 blocks laid out in the 1830 survey of Chicago, according to Engineering News-Record. Nearly all of the buildings on the site were torn down in October 1989 for a redevelopment plan that later collapsed, and the land then sat largely empty for more than a decade, CBS Chicago reported in 2011.

In the meantime, the city put the empty block to use. Gallery 37, a city program that paired young people with professional artists as paid apprentices, started on the site in 1991, according to a Clinton White House archive page. Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg came up with the idea, Mayor Richard M. Daley backed the use of the land, and the program grew from 260 students a year to 2,500 young people in 1997.

Construction finally arrived in the 2000s. A 16-story office building on the block opened in June 2008, Engineering News-Record reported, and the mall opened in November 2009, according to CBS Chicago. The project soon ran into debt. Developer Joseph Freed and Associates defaulted on a $205 million loan from Bank of America, a Cook County judge ordered the firm to give up control of the center in 2010, and Bank of America was the only bidder at a court-ordered auction in March 2011, paying $100 million. The complex was only about 30% occupied at the time, according to the Sun-Times. CIM bought the mall from the bank in 2012 and later added a 690-unit apartment tower above the mall, Bisnow reported.

The CTA station that never opened

Under the mall is the shell of a CTA superstation that was supposed to be the downtown starting point for nonstop express trains to O’Hare and Midway airports, NBC Chicago reported in 2015. The project stalled in 2008. That June, WBEZ reported that the CTA blamed cost overruns on unexpected problems at the site and rising construction prices, and that the agency wanted a private partner to finish the job.

In the 2015 report, the Civic Federation put the public cost of the station at $400 million and still climbing. A decade later, in April 2025, NBC 5 Investigates found the unfinished station locked up again with no plan for its future.

Getting there

The mall connects underground to two CTA subway lines, and the CTA’s own station pages describe the links.

• The Red Line’s Lake station at 188 N. State St. connects to the mezzanine-level Pedway through Block 37 from its Randolph-Washington exit.
• The Blue Line’s Washington station at 19 N. Dearborn St. connects to the same Pedway route through Block 37.
• Riders can transfer between the Red and Blue lines through the mall for free with a farecard, according to the CTA.
• CTA bus routes 29, 36, 146 and 148 connect at the Lake station.
• The mall sits above a four-level underground parking garage, REjournals reported, and The Dearborn validates parking for diners at 181 N. Dearborn St. for $16.

State Street’s retail picture

The sale comes as State Street’s storefront vacancy eases. Stone Real Estate figures cited by Bisnow put State Street vacancy at about 28.8% in 2025, down from roughly 35% in 2024, and a city filing suggests Gap may move into the former Urban Outfitters space a few blocks south. Citywide, Colliers data from August put Chicago’s retail vacancy rate at 7.7%, up slightly from 7.4% at the end of 2025, the Sun-Times reported.

The block’s office side faces a change of its own. Morningstar’s headquarters is in the neighboring office tower at 22 W. Washington St., part of the larger Block 37 development, according to REjournals, and the company plans to move to the Thompson Center in late 2028.

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