Leopardo Construction Buys to Chicago Headquarters

A general contractor with its finger on the pulse of Chicago’s office-to-resi ambitions is shifting west as the city’s office landscape evolves.

Leopardo Construction is moving its Chicago office to a West Loop industrial building recently acquired by its holding company, the Chicago Business Journal reported. It’s a long-term bet on one of the city’s fastest-changing neighborhoods and deepens the construction company’s ties to its downtown redevelopment efforts.

Leopardo plays a central role in one of the city’s most ambitious public-private initiatives, LaSalle Street Reimagined.

Alexander West Capital, Leopardo’s holding firm, purchased the 48,500-square-foot mixed-use property at 1100 West Monroe Street from Kolcraft Enterprises for $7.45 million on May 1. The acquisition came out to about $154 per square foot.

The three-story property includes office and industrial space, three loading docks and an adjacent parking lot with 37 spaces. Kolcraft, which previously occupied the building, is set to vacate this summer. Transwestern represented Kolcraft in the deal, and Greenstone Partners’ Jason St. John repped Alexander West.

Leopardo has its Chicago office at 120 South Riverside Plaza and plans to relocate to the Monroe Street site after buildout. Details on renovation costs or timelines have not been disclosed. The site’s location, just south of Fulton Market and within walking distance of McDonald’s headquarters, Union Station and Ogilvie, is a play toward future growth.

Jason St. John said the property gives Leopardo “a highly functional headquarters and long-term potential for a redevelopment one day.”

Through LaSalle Street Reimagined, the contractor is among the teams converting underutilized office buildings in the Loop into apartments through a city-backed incentive program meant to revitalize the downtown core. The relocation puts the firm down the road from the first office-to-residential conversion project to receive city funding through the program, Campari and R2’s conversion of 79 West Monroe Street, which Leopardo is contracted for along with GMA Group.

Leopardo also maintains a suburban office in Hoffman Estates and has been involved in major construction and adaptive reuse projects across the city and state. The firm’s move westward reflects a broader migration of creative and corporate users into the West Loop, where zoning flexibility and proximity to transit have made it one of Chicago’s most desirable office submarkets.

— Judah Duke