The company built the tower in recent years on a construction loan, and always planned to refinance following the building's completion in June, Newman says. "In our normal program and plan we would have refinanced, and it was really time to get off the construction loan and move into more of a regular loan," Newman tells GlobeSt.com. "It's a really tough time refinancing, but we thought the time was right to get a good loan for a longer period that helps stabilize the loan. We had some time left on our construction loan, but we didn't want to wait closer to the maturity date of the construction loan because of the instability of the market."

Newman says rates are higher than the company originally expected when planning for the eventual refinancing, but it was able to negotiate with ING Real Estate Finance US to what they consider a successful refinancing of the mortgage nevertheless. The original mortgage on the property was issued by Bank of America.

Morningstar Inc., based here, and CBS Channel 2 Chicago are the anchor tenants in the building, developed by a joint venture between Golub & Co. LLC, based here, and New York City-based BlackRock Realty Advisors Inc. Sterling Business Center Inc. has also signed on for about 29,000 sf. There's availability on only a couple of floors in the tower, where asking lease rates are in the high-$20s per sf, Newman says.