The owner of a Loop office tower has thrown in the towel on its $230 million mortgage, according to a foreclosure lawsuit filed late last week in Cook County Circuit Court, adding to the pile of distressed office properties plaguing the heart of the city. An entity led by Paris-based lender Societe Generale alleged in a complaint that the owner of the 49-story tower at 161 N. Clark St. defaulted on its loan by failing to make its loan payment due in August.Audio: Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon says Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades – Chicago’s Morning Answer
April 3, 2026
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Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Illinois lost another 54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them.
The beautiful downtown is no more. DOA, high crime (Ken Griffin warned them), High taxes, and dirty public transportation.
One by one, the Loop’s office towers are sliding into bankruptcy — the pandemic has been over for a year, but Chicago offices are only 25 Pct occupied most days of the week.