Sweeping views of the river and downtown will be one of the building's great selling points.
CHICAGO—The Howard Hughes Corp. got another step closer to breaking ground on the trophy class office building it plans to build at 110 N. Wacker Dr. with yesterday's unanimous approval at the Chicago Plan Commission meeting. The 51-story building will become one of several just-completed or rising trophy office buildings in the West Loop. Howard Hughes Corp. will collaborate with Riverside Investment & Development, Goettsch Partners and CBRE – the same development, design and leasing team behind the recently completed 150 North Riverside Plaza office tower.
The new trophy towers have already brought about great changes to the CBD's office market. The downtown in effect has a new class of office buildings, ones with far better amenities and design elements than the older class A projects. And so far, developers have found a tremendous demand among tenants for these class A+ offices.
“We saw 150 Riverside lease up very well; 83% at the time of its opening, and that is a very good bellwether,” Jim McCaffrey, vice president of development for Hughes, tells GlobeSt.com. And although he can't offer up any details, for 110 North Wacker “we've had strong tenant interest to date.”
Chicago-based Goettsch is designing the 1.35 million-square-foot tower. The setting between Wacker Dr. and the Chicago River will offer its tenants sweeping views up and down the river, as well as of the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan. “There will be nothing but light and air on all four sides,” says McCaffrey, a big draw to office users accustomed to seeing nothing but another office tower out their windows.
The tower will also feature a set of first-class modern amenities, including retail and dining options, a conference center, a fitness facility and state-of-the-art building systems.
Goettsch's design includes a series of stepped projections on the western façade, and that will help the building stand out from its competitors. Most buildings have four corner offices, but Hughes' project “fifteen, and all have incredible views,” says McCaffrey.
He also emphasizes that the development will benefit not just its tenants, but the wider downtown community. Roughly half of the property's space will be available for public use, and will feature a soaring covered Riverwalk, which will complement the 1.3-mile Chicago Riverwalk just to the north. “It's creating tremendous value for the city of Chicago, and we jumped at the opportunity to build on that,” says McCaffrey.
“With Riverside, Goettsch Partners and Drew Nieman's group from CBRE, we have assembled a team with a proven track record for creating iconic office buildings in Chicago,” adds Grant Herlitz, president of Hughes. “We are pleased to be advancing through the city process and look forward to next steps.”
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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.
