CHICAGO-Marketing Werks Inc., a locally based, experiential, mobile and event marketing agency, has expanded its offices at 111 E. Wacker Dr. with a long-term lease renewal and expansion of with an additional 6,000 sf. The company will now occupy 22,323 sf on the top floor of the building through 2017. The 111 E. Wacker property is a 32-story, one-million-sf office building.

The new space will make room for more than 25 employees, increasing staff to approximately 100 in office staff members and 500 in field representatives. This marks the third expansion the company has undergone in the last four years, nearly doubling its space since moving into the building in 2001.

Kyle Kamin, first vice president of CB Richard Ellis represented Marketing Werks in the transaction. Genny Emerson of Lincoln Property represented building ownership. Kamin tells GlobeSt.com that this was the last deal executed with the previous owner of the building, Lincoln Property/Carlyle Group, before Parkway Properties takes over.

Kamin says Marketing Werks originally relocated from 150 N. Michigan Ave. back when it first came to 111 E. Wacker. "We were lucky with this last expansion because we were able to expand into contiguous space within the building," he says. "Agency firms like this one need a Michigan Avenue/East Loop location not only because of the cachet Michigan Avenue represents, but because they're in proximity to other agencies." Kamin adds that Marketing Werks does a lot of promotional work with Lego, the mobile Hershey Kiss and Nike.

Tony Karmin, an executive vice president in the Tenant Advisory Group at Transwestern, says the East Loop market has suffered in recent years because of its distance from the two major Metra Stations, Union and Ogilvie. "That's where people want to be, and the East Loop submarket doesn't have as much inventory," Karmin says. "Several buildings, when faced with large vacancies, have turned that space in residential condominiums." Trammell Crow's First Quarter 2006 Market Report lists the average asking price for office space in the East Loop submarket is $24.34 per sf.