The Wirtz family is teeing up a $25 million renovation of a historic office tower it owns at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, betting the investment will pay off by helping attract new office and retail tenants.
The project means some if not all current retail tenants in Art Deco high-rise at 333 N. Michigan Ave. will lose their leases, as Chicago-based Wirtz Corp., parent of the firm’s real estate unit and owner of the building, tries to reposition the property amid a strengthening local retail market.
Wirtz plans to revamp lower-level facades and add a new entrance on the Wacker Drive side of the building, a spokesman for the firm said, through where Fannie May now has a candy store.
