(Bloomberg) — Chicago's Willis Tower, once the world's tallestbuilding and one of the city's top tourist attractions, is up forsale.

The owners, which include New York-based investors JosephChetrit and Joseph Moinian, have hired brokerage Eastdil Secured tomarket the 110-story skyscraper, said a person with knowledge ofthe matter, who asked not to be identified because the listingisn't public. It may fetch around $1.5 billion, which would set arecord for an office building in the third-biggest U.S. city.

The 1,450-foot (442-meter) building, formerly known as the SearsTower, is the second-tallest in the U.S., and was the world'shighest from its completion in the early 1970s until 1998,according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Itwas last sold in 2004 to a group including Chetrit, Moinian andAmerican Landmark Properties Ltd. for $841 million, a Chicagorecord until Irvine Co.'s $850 million purchase of 300 N. LaSalleSt. last year.

“It's iconic in the size and how it dominates the skyline,”James Kutill, a vice president of Chicago-based Appraisal ResearchCounselors, said in a telephone interview. “As an office building,however, it's 1970s construction.”

Prices for U.S. office buildings in major markets have surpassedtheir prior peak, bolstered by investors seeking the higher yieldsin commercial property than they can find in many fixed-incomesecurities. Office rents are climbing as employers add jobs,helping boost the value of real estate.

Brian Rehme, a spokesman for Willis Tower's ownership atFleishman-Hillard, declined to comment. The listing was reportedTuesday by Real Estate Alert, a trade newsletter covering thecommercial-property market.

Sears, United

The 3.8 million-square-foot (353,000-square-meter) tower wasoriginally built as a headquarters for the company now known asSears Holdings Corp. The property's name was changed in 2009 toWillis Tower after insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Ltd.agreed to lease space in the building. It's now also theheadquarters for airline United Continental Holdings Inc.

Willis Tower lost its title as tallest U.S. skyscraper in 2013,when the Council on Tall Buildings determined that the spire of 1World Trade Center in New York counted as part of the architectureand was included in that tower's 1,776-foot height.

Douglas Harmon of Eastdil is representing the investors in theWillis Tower sale.

–With assistance from Nadja Brandt and John Gittelsohn inLos Angeles and David M. Levitt in New York.

Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.