CHICAGO—As reported yesterday in GlobeSt.com, Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council has decided to stay in 222 S. Riverside Plaza, its home for several decades. The group just renewed its long-term lease of nearly 30,000-square-feet on the 19th floor in the West Loop office tower, and Tiffany Winne, senior managing director of Savills Studley, which helped MCHC negotiate the new lease, tells GlobeSt.com that “we surveyed the entire market as part of the process,” but that survey just “reinforced for them the advantages of staying in 222 S. Riverside.”
Unlike many downtown office buildings, for example, the 35-story, 1.2-million-square-foot tower, which sits along the river, is separated from its neighbors, allowing light to flow in on all sides. Tenants have “uncompromised views, even on the lower floors” and with Union Station next door “you're stacked up on top of a major train station.” Furthermore, the huge floor plates, which average about 35,000-square-feet, ensured that MCHC, a membership and service organization dedicated to improving the delivery of health care services in the Chicago area, got to stay on one floor.
Savills Studley also recently represented Lincoln International, a global mid-market investment bank, in its renewal of a long-term lease nearby at the 42-story Citigroup Center, 500 West Madison St. Like MCHC, the bank looked at all the local options, but decided to stick with its present space. “They are completely different organizations, but they had the same realization.” 500 W. Madison also sits atop a train station, and the tight West Loop market will have few alternatives until 2017.
Many landlords in the submarket may be considering the possibility that their tenants could leave once those towers open for business, Winne adds, and seem open to making concessions. And although Winne cannot divulge the details of MCHC's lease due to a confidentiality agreement, it does include provisions which will allow the organization to either shrink or grow its footprint over the years. Such provisions are important for groups in health care services, due to that sector's volatility. “The ownership was very aggressive in retaining them.”
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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.
