From the NY Times...
Blackstone announced on Monday that it had purchased the 3.8-million-square-foot office building, the second-tallest building in the United States, paying roughly $1.3 billion to add a premier new property to its growing portfolio. When Blackstone officially takes over, the investment firm plans to spend an estimated $150 million to upgrade the tower’s retail space and its famous Skydeck, the 103rd-floor observatory that commands sweeping views of Chicago, particularly from the glass-cube “ledges” that jut out 4.3 feet from the building.
An article from Crain's Chicago Business had an interesting observation...
Sears Tower is a great building. Find another building from the 1970s that didn't have asbestos, was built with sprinkler systems and has 50,000-square-foot floor plates with no columns. It's an unbelievable piece of real estate.