Morningstar founder and executive chairman Joe Mansueto may be about to become a real estate baron, too.

Mansueto has agreed to shell out $255 million to buy an iconic Chicago building, the Chicago Tribune reports. Crain's Chicago Business broke the news that Mansueto had agreed to buy an ownership stake in the Wrigley building from a group of venture partners led by BDT.

Fox and the Real Deal also reported on the deal.

According to the Tribune, that $255-million price tag is nearly eight times the $33 million the building sold for back in 2011. And the deal was direct, without a commercial real estate brokerage being involved, the paper says. The rumor was that, after the 2011 deal, the BDT-led venture then put $70 million into renovating the building and getting it mostly full of tenants. Mansueto has been a client of BDT, Crain's notes.

Morningstar's headquarters is in Chicago, and Crain's notes that the investment research giant's lease there runs through 2023.

Morningstar's market cap currently stands at $5.1 billion, so Mansueto's 55-percent stake is worth $2.805 billion. Forbes estimates Mansueto's current net worth at $3.1 billion. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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