Serot and Todd Lippman, EVP, represented AlixPartners in the lease transaction. J.F. McKinney & Associates represented Chicago-based developer Hines. The Chicago office of AlixPartners has been leasing 18,000 sf at 181 W. Madison since 2003. The firm's Chicago office has grown nearly 40% since then and currently has 82 people, AlixPartners' managing director Bruce Denuyl said in a statement regarding the lease. "We've gone from being a firm with only three offices in the US with revenues of less than $80 million just seven years ago, to a global organization with 13 offices across North America, Europe and Asia and with revenues in excess of $500 million, Denuyl said.

AlixPartners chose to relocate at the building being developed by Hines for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they could not easily expand at 181 W. Madison, Serot says. "They did not have the option to expand on two contiguous floors," he says. "They would have to be on two non-contiguous floors." The firm chose 300 N. LaSalle because of the river views, newly constructed space, the "comparable rents" to existing buildings and "the timing of delivery," Serot tells GlobeSt.com. The tower under construction at 300 N. LaSalle is the first of several buildings that will come online in 2009. The Chicago office of AlixPartners will move into its new space in March.

The 60-story, 775-feet tall building, which was designed by Pickard Chilton Architects, will have 25,000-sf floor plates. The building, which will have more than 200 feet of frontage along the Chicago River, will have a three-story lobby, retail bank, sundry shop, white tablecloth restaurant, fitness center, conference center and riverfront plaza, according to a marketing brochure from Hines. Other amenities include an underground parking garage, enclosed bicycle storage room and pedestrian access to public transportation.