360,000-SF Lease Signed in East Loop

CHICAGO-Electric power industry consultant Sargent & Lundy has renewed and expanded its lease at 55 E. Monroe St., now occupying 360,000 sf in Tishman Speyer Properties’ East Loop building. The deal is the largest lease signed Downtown this year, topping Boeing Corp.’s 250,000-sf deal at 100 N. Riverside Plaza as well as Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe LLP’s 235,000-sf deal at 203 N.LaSalle St.

“The key challenge of the deal was making available 76,000 sf for occupancy by Nov. 1 in the face of the building’s 2.2% vacancy level,” says Stacey Kruger Birndorf, a director in Cushman & Wakefield’s office brokerage services group.