CHICAGO—The West Loop may be the city's hottest office submarket, but many still want the cachet of a CBD address. Ignite USA, for example, has just decided to relocate its headquarters from a loft building at 954 W. Washington Blvd. to 21,000-square-feet in the heart of downtown. The company, which markets its products under the Contigo brand in the housewares industry and the Avex brand in the outdoor and sporting goods industry, will take a full floor at 180 N. LaSalle St.
“Initially, they thought it would be more cost-effective to redo the West Loop space,” Jordan Decker, associate vice president of DTZ, tells GlobeSt.com. But Decker and Christopher Wood, executive vice president and managing director of DTZ in Chicago, performed an analysis which showed Ignite could afford the CBD. DTZ negotiated the deal with Joy Jordan and Jack O'Brien of the Telos Group, representing the owner, an affiliate of Beacon Capital Partners.
“The CBD market is tight, and it's becoming more landlord-friendly,” Decker says, but for a company like Ignite, which has made Inc.'s list of the fastest growing companies in the nation, owners are willing to do a bit more to get a lease signed. “It's a company with very good credit and,” due to its use of technology, design and engineering, “has a Google-esque feel,” just the type of firm landlords want these days.
“We got a really aggressive deal on the move,” Decker adds. Although he can't provide details on the lease, he did say that the owner would complete a build-out which will allow Ignite to maintain a collaborative work environment. “It was really important for them to replicate what they had in the West Loop wherever they ended up. And if they had stayed in their West Loop building, the cost of renovation would have been on them.”
But the move was also about getting a LaSalle St. address. “They are trying to strengthen their image as an urban, Chicago-based company.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
