CHICAGO—Sterling Baybegan buying up and renovating properties in the Fulton Market neighborhood about four years ago when the city decided to construct a Green Line El stop there, and has just unveiled Fulton West, its latest development project. Sterling Bay acquired the former MarchFirst Inc. site at 1332 W. Fulton in January 2014, along with a few other nearby office buildings, and its tremendous success in attracting Google and others to its mammoth 1KFulton project at 1000 W. Fulton has helped inspire the plan to transform the new site into a speculative office building with nine-stories and 290,000-square-feet.
“Strengthening demand and strong market fundamentals in the office sector were the drivers for launching this project,” says principal Andy Gloor. “Although spec building has all but disappeared following the economic downturn, we feel the time is right to build.”
The information technology company WhittmanHart, which later became MarchFirst, originally began developing the site during the 1990s Internet boom. The company wanted to transform the neighborhood into a high-tech office hub, but the bursting of the dot.com bubble left an empty and unused four-story concrete structure on the site.
Sterling Bay will incorporate the partially built garage and foundation into the new office building that will feature about 790 parking spaces for the building and the neighborhood, a fitness center, indoor bike storage and large 38,000-square-foot floor plates with generous bay spacing and high, exposed ceilings.
In addition to 1KFulton and Fulton West, in the last several years Sterling Bay has redeveloped other Near West Side properties such as 111 N. Canal and 400 S. Jefferson. And a mix of traditional and high-tech companies like Google, Twitter, GoGo, Hillshire Brands, SAP, IDEO and Uber have flocked to these renovated buildings.
Sterling Bay officials say they will employ the same aesthetic approach used in their other urban properties. The firm will pursue a LEED certification for the new development, for example, and provide abundant green space. Tenants will also have access to a roof-top deck, landscaped balconies and a 20,000-square-foot park adjacent to the building. Sterling Bay expects to deliver the new tower by December 2016.
“At a time when demand far exceeds supply, speed to market is a definite advantage for the property,” says Sterling Bay's Chloe Reaumond, who along with Russ Cora, oversees leasing at Fulton West. “Tenants currently seeking space in the neighborhood are being turned away due to lack of existing product.”
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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.
