St. Regis Chicago Condos for Sale: Know Who You’re Buying From

Sixteen condominiums at 363 East Wacker Drive changed hands twice in five months. In December 2025, Dalian Wanda Group transferred them to an affiliate of Sony Pictures Entertainment in a deal valued at $47.5 million, as part of settling a dispute over the children's cartoon "Octonauts." In May 2026, Sony sold the same 16 units to Denver-based GD Holdings for $21 million, or about $1.31 million per residence. The package included penthouses on the 77th and 89th floors.

The units and the floors did not change, but the second price was less than half the first. A buyer comparing St. Regis Chicago residences to other trophy towers by price per square foot needs to understand that gap first. A large share of the building's supply is held by a few institutional owners. Each bought at its own price, has its own reasons to sell, and works on its own timeline. What a unit is worth to its seller often depends on how that seller acquired it.

The Ownership Chain Since 2024

The Jeanne Gang-designed tower was completed in 2020. It holds 393 residences above a 192-key hotel operated by Marriott International. Since then, the residential inventory has moved through a few hands in large blocks.

The Real Deal described the May transaction as an example of "the power of the bulk discount" at the 101-story tower. Both GD Holdings purchases came in well below what single units have recently sold for one at a time.

A Seller Whose Cost Is Far Below the Asking Price

GD Holdings is the real estate investment arm of Grupo Denim, the Mexican apparel company led by Salomon Juan Marcos Villarreal. It now holds two positions in the building. With Miami-based Gencom, it co-owns the hotel on the tower's first 11 floors. Gencom has said that GD Holdings alone is the investor in the condominium portion.

As of April 2026, property records showed GD had resold 48 of the 84 units it bought from Magellan, for a combined $131 million. On average, that is about $2.7 million per unit sold, against a bulk purchase price of about $1.4 million per unit. The units vary widely, so those averages are rough. Still, GD recovered more than the full $117 million purchase price on fewer than 60 percent of the units. The remaining residences from that block, and the 16 bought from Sony, carry a very low cost basis.

Individual sales show the spread clearly. On August 1, 2025, a 6,300-square-foot penthouse on the 79th floor owned by an LLC linked to GD Holdings sold for $7.5 million. In October 2025, a buyer paid $9.25 million for an 84th-floor penthouse, according to property records. In April 2026, GD listed a 73rd-floor penthouse at $8.4 million.

A buyer negotiating with an owner like this is dealing with a portfolio holder. That owner has already recovered its investment, has income from units it rents out, and is not under pressure to sell any one residence. That affects how much room there is to negotiate, how long a unit may stay on the market, and how firm an asking price is likely to be.

How Sony's Reasons for Selling Set the May Price

The Sony sale shows that price can follow the seller's situation as much as the property. Sony received the condos as part of the "Octonauts" settlement. A U.K. judge had ordered Wanda to pay $49 million, and Wanda chose to settle by handing over assets. Wanda took the remaining 49 percent of the show's production company, and Sony's subsidiary took 16 St. Regis residences.

The Real Deal pointed out that Sony is an entertainment company and had already gone to court to get the units. It reasoned that Sony probably had good reason to sell the portfolio quickly, at a steep discount, to turn it into cash. One of those 16 units is a 6,000-square-foot residence on the 89th floor. It was listed in 2019 at $11 million and later offered for rent at $35,000 a month for much of 2025. In the May sale it was bundled with 15 other residences at an average of $1.31 million each.

Bulk transfers like these show up in public property records as transactions at the address. They describe how one owner exited a holding. They do not describe what a single buyer would pay for a single unit.

Leased Units and Off-Market Sales

Many of the units held by large owners are rented out. A person familiar with sales at the building told The Real Deal that the Sony portfolio likely included units that were fully built out and already leased. Penthouses in the tower were renting for about $35,000 a month, and half-floor residences for about $25,000.

Because of those leases, some residences sell without ever being listed. In August 2026, the long-term tenant bought the 49th-floor St. Regis condo he had rented for five years. He paid $5.2 million, and the unit was not on the market.

Two figures from that sale are useful in any St. Regis comparison. The Cook County assessor's office valued the unit at $4.6 million, so the buyer paid about 13 percent above the assessed value. The unit's property tax bill for the 2025 tax year was $95,836. Those are recorded figures for one residence, not a guide to any other unit's taxes. They do show the kind of annual carrying cost that belongs in a buyer's comparison alongside the purchase price.

The 21 Residences Wanda Still Holds

Wanda's exit is not finished. In March 2025, it began marketing 37 condos as a single bulk offering. That pool included five one-bedrooms, five two-bedrooms, 18 three-bedrooms, five four-bedrooms and four penthouses, and none had ever been listed individually. After 16 went to Sony, Wanda still controlled 21 as of May 2026. The Real Deal reported that its long-term plans for them were unclear. As of April 2026, those remaining units included a 92nd-floor penthouse that had previously been listed at $18.5 million.

We found no reporting through early October 2026 on what happened to those 21 residences. If they sell as one block, another investor would take over a large set of units at a bulk price. If they come to market one at a time, buyers would have more choice of floor plans. Either way, a buyer would want to know before making an offer.

Which Sales Belong in a St. Regis Comparison

The building's recent sales record mixes several kinds of transactions. Before relying on any of them, sort them like this:

1. Bulk portfolio transfers. The $117 million, $47.5 million and $21 million deals show how institutional owners entered or left the building. They do not price individual units.
2. Sales by a large holder to individual buyers. The 79th-floor sale at $7.5 million is the clearest example of what a large owner has gotten for a prime unit in developer condition.
3. Owner-renovated resales. The 76th-floor penthouse is the main example. Its owners bought it in 2024 for $8.3 million, redesigned it with furnishings from designer brands and Italian marble, and in April 2026 began offering it fully furnished at $11.5 million, 39 percent above their purchase price. Other penthouses in the tower have sold in their original developer condition. Robb Report still described it as offered at that price in July 2026. An asking price is not a sale, and we found no later report on its status.
4. Off-market purchases by tenants. The off-market sale was negotiated between a landlord and a long-term tenant, with no public marketing.

Market conditions are part of the context too. In September 2025, Crain's Chicago Business reported that the tower was having its best year since 2022 for upper-priced sales, after a two-year slump. In its July 2026 midyear review, Crain's described Chicago's high-end residential market as still hot but less so than at midyear 2025. The building's highest recorded sale is still the 10,000-square-foot duplex penthouse on the 71st and 72nd floors, which sold for $20.6 million in 2022.

A Few Direct Answers

Does a low bulk price mean a buyer can get an individual unit at that price? No sale reported so far points that way. GD Holdings bought at about $1.4 million per unit and has resold individual residences at several times that figure. A bulk purchase price shows what that owner paid for a whole block of units, not what a single unit will sell for.

Who owns the St. Regis Chicago hotel? As of April 2026, a joint venture of Gencom and GD Holdings owned it. That month the partners refinanced the hotel with a $125 million loan from Banco Inbursa, paying off $76 million of earlier debt. Magellan kept a minority stake when it sold the hotel in 2023.

Are St. Regis residences available for rent? Yes. Leasing is an active part of how the large owners hold their units. As of May 2026, penthouses were renting for about $35,000 a month and half-floor units for about $25,000.

Can an assessor's valuation stand in for market value? In the one recent sale with both numbers reported, the August 2026 price was 13 percent above the assessed value. Treat assessed values as one data point, and ask a tax professional how they affect any particular unit.

At the St. Regis Chicago, the most useful thing to know before any offer is who owns the unit, what they paid, and whether it is leased. Mike Larson follows the tower's ownership history unit by unit and can help you work out what that means for a residence you are considering. Schedule a confidential consultation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.