Tribune Media puts up iconic Tribune Tower for sale

Tribune Media has hired a real estate investment banker to explore the sale of its Tribune Tower, headquarters that occupy acres along Chicago's Michigan Avenue.

In a recent move, the company also sold the printing plant for another Tribune Publishing property, The Baltimore Sun.

According to Tribune Real Estate's head Murray McQueen, the building's location and prestige made it a site with unprecedented development potential.

He added the company expected the announcement to generate a high level of interest. On 1 February 1989, the tower was listed among Chicago's landmarks.

Mcqueen went on to say that that the building had more linear frontage along Chicago's busiest commercial avenues than Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue in NYC.

In order to focus on its TV business, Tribune Media spun off its distributed division, last year including the Los Angeles Times.

Tribune Real Estate has been looking to redevelop Times Mirror Square in Los Angeles and sites in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in Florida, and Costa Mesa, California.

Tribune Media said it had contracted Eastdil Secured to strike a deal or find parties interested in helping redevelop Tribune Tower.

McQueen added the company saw Tribune Tower as ''the future site of an exciting retail destination, surrounded by world-class adaptive re-use of the Tower and additional mixed use development''.