Photo courtesy of the city of Hartford

A quitclaim deed filed with the Hartford city clerk’s office shows Hartford’s well-known “Stilts Building” has traded hands.

An affiliate of prominent downtown Hartford landlord Shelbourne Global Solutions sold the 20 Church St. tower to LLCs controlled by fellow downtown investor LAZ Investments and Memphis, the U.S. arm of Canadian investment giant Olymbec.

The quitclaim deed lists no purchase price, but the amount of local transfer tax paid on the deed shows the property sold for $8.25 million with no mortgage. Shelbourne had bought the building for $44.42 million in 2014.

Wells Fargo Bank, which bought the mortgage for $30.75 million that Shelbourne used to buy the building, simultaneously released the building from foreclosure. The bank had filed a petition to foreclose on the 394,352-square-foot building in 2022 after it, like many other downtown buildings, was unable to retain or acquire enough office tenants. Filings at the time showed just under $25.73 million was owed on the mortgage.

The downtown Hartford office market remains in the doldrums. New brokerage research shows the availability rate has fallen, but nonetheless sits at 21.7 percent. And the Stilts Buildings fellow office assets City Place, Constitution Plaza and Metro Center all face or have faced foreclosure or receivership in recent years.

LAZ Chairman and CEO Alan Lazkowski told the Hartford Business Journal that his company and Olymbec plan targeted upgrades to common areas in an effort to woo new tenants.