Historic Pelouze Building Changes Hands as Streeterville's Office-to-Apartment Trend Accelerates

By Socialhood News · Il/Chicago/Streeterville · October 24, 2025

Streeterville's historic Pelouze Building at 230 East Ohio Street is changing ownership, as Horizon Realty Group recently sold the seven-story loft building to Wildwood Investments for $9.75 million. The sale price represents a substantial increase from the $5.6 million Horizon paid just last year, highlighting the growing demand for residential conversion projects in downtown Chicago.

The 1917 structure, designed by architect Alfred Alschuler, has a storied history. Once home to the Pelouze Scale & Manufacturing Company, the building later hosted the office of renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and even served as the exterior backdrop for the 1980s CBS sitcom starring Mary Tyler Moore. Now, Wildwood Investments plans to maintain Horizon's vision of converting the building into 72 apartments.

Plans for the century-old building include a rooftop deck featuring two pickleball courts, grill stations, fire pits, and a dog walk for residents. The apartments will offer a mix of studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units, while current retail tenants on the ground floor are expected to remain. This project is part of a larger trend of adaptive reuse in neighborhoods like Streeterville, where developers are reimagining aging commercial buildings as much-needed housing to meet Chicago's surging residential demand. Residents interested in learning more about this transformation can attend the next Streeterville Organization of Active Residents meeting, where neighborhood development projects are regularly discussed.

Sources:
1. https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2025/10/16/horizon-realty-group-flips-chicago-streeterville-office/
2. https://www.preservationchicago.org/potential-win-developer-plans-to-adaptively-reuse-pelouze-building-as-residential/
3. https://chicago.urbanize.city/post/residential-conversion-230-e-ohio-scores-permit