Chinese investor looking to sell Vista Tower stake to shopping mall developer

After marketing its majority stake in Vista Tower for $900 million back in January, Chinese developer Dalian Wanda Group is in talks to sell its 60 percent share of the under-construction supertall skyscraper to shopping mall builder Triple Five Group.

The potential sale comes as Chinese government regulators continue to crackdown on offshore spending by the country’s largest conglomerates—Wanda included. The company unloaded its ownership position in London’s One Nine Elms project and a pair of Australian developments earlier this year.

Vista Tower

In addition to picking up Wanda’s position in the Chicago project, Triple Five would take over the Chinese firm’s $1.2 billion One Beverly Hills hotel and condo development as part of the agreement. The transaction was first reported by CoStar and published by The Real Deal.

Canada-based Triple Five Group is primarily associated with its large shopping malls and entertainment complexes. The firm developed Minnesota’s Mall of America and is behind the slow-to-finish American Dream Meadowlands complex in New Jersey. It is also mulling an ambitious plan to build the country’s largest shopping mall in Miami.

Chicago’s Vista Tower broke ground at 363 E. Wacker Drive in late 2016. The project not only represented the single most substantial Chinese real estate investment in Chicago history, but was the largest in the entire United States.

Construction crews recently topped-off the second of the skyscraper’s three banks of stacked frustums and have roughly two dozen levels—including an unoccupied “blow through” floor—still to build.

Codeveloped by Chicago-based Magellan Group, the combination hotel and condo tower is scheduled to open in 2020. At 1,186 feet, it will become Chicago’s third tallest building.

• Got $900 million? Vista Tower is up for sale [Curbed Chicago]
• Is Vista Tower’s biggest investor looking for a way out? [Curbed Chicago]