A downtown bank building that was bought by a Milwaukee property management firm in 2006 for $1.27 million sold for just $550,000 at auction.
Winnebago County recorded the sale of the 401 E. State St. building on Dec. 27. The new owner is a British Columbia firm, Dominick Street LLC, an entity set up by Canadian real estate investor, Jeet Pangli, and a Chicago business partner.
The 60,000-square-foot building with a 10,000-square-foot annex south of the building and two parking lots, is home to a JPMorgan Chase branch. JPMorgan Chase remains open and takes up about half of the building. Bank officials have no plans of moving.
The bargain basement price is the latest example of how much the value of commercial property has fallen.
Local architect Gary Anderson, owner of Gary Anderson & Associates, is gathering data to show that depressed property values in downtown Rockford is discouraging investment. Some of the projects pointed out in Jeff Kolkey’s story about Anderson’s work include the SupplyCore building at 303 N. Main St. Owners poured $9.8 million into upgrading the building yet it now has a fair market value of just $2.7 million. The William Brown Lofts, 226-228 S. Main St., had $6 million put into it in the largest downtown housing project to date and now is worth just $1.3 million, according to Winnebago County.
Pangli though sounds eager to invest in downtown. Pangli said he is in discussions to sell the 10,000-square-foot building to a local investor who would turn it into a restaurant, and he plans to quickly fix a number of maintenance issues in the larger building.
