LAKE FOREST, ILL. (Jan. 31, 2 p.m. ET) — Solo Cup Co. has hired CBRE Inc. to auction its former headquarters in Highland Park, Ill, about three years after the collapse of an earlier deal to sell the property.
CBRE is pitching the 28-acre site as a redevelopment opportunity, which is what attracted a joint venture including Skokie, Ill.-based Annenberg Investments Ltd. to the site in 2008.
After Solo Cup decided to move its headquarters to Lake Forest, it agreed to sell the Highland Park property to Annenberg and its partner, Chicago-based Monroe Investment Partners LLC, which had planned a mixed-use project there. But that deal fell apart amid the financial crisis in late 2008.
Jeff Annenberg, principal at Annenberg Investments, says he is evaluating whether his firm will participate in the sealed-bid auction. Offers are due March 6.
Annenberg would not speculate on the current value of the property, which includes a 245,000-square-foot factory and a 64,500-square-foot office building. The joint venture had originally agreed to pay around $17 million in 2008, but the deal died after it asked for a price reduction to about $12 million, sources said at the time.
Douglas Johnson, a managing director with CBRE Auction Services, says the company has set a minimum, or “reserve,” price that a buyer would need to pay, but he declines to disclose the figure. The property is being sold with no other contingencies, he says.
“I don't know of any other time there have been 28 acres in Highland Park that were available that didn't have to be assembled,” Johnson says. “This is a very prominent piece of property on the North Shore and I'm sure we'll have some good interest in the property.”
CBRE believes the property, with industrial grade power supply and fiber optic lines, could be redeveloped for a several uses including retail, medical, education, multifamily housing or another corporate headquarters. The property is near retail centers and residential neighborhoods.
Solo Cup, which makes disposable cups and plates, moved its headquarters in December 2009 to a 160,000-square-foot building in Lake Forest.