Silicon Valley giant Cisco Systems is reportedly eyeing a move to downtown Chicago. The tech firm, which currently occupies approximately 81,000 square feet in the Rosemont Corporate Center, is in talks to take 130,000 square feet in the Old Post Office.
According to a story by Crain’s, Cisco has recently been perusing potential downtown office locations to relocate sales employees from suburban Rosemont, Illinois, where the IT company now leases the majority of the four-story building located at 9501 Technology Boulevard. It’s unclear if a new lease by Cisco in the Old Post Office would necessitate the relocation of all Rosemont employees, as well as those that the firm houses across the street from the South Loop behemoth at 525 W. Van Buren Street.
New-York-based 601W Companies is in the midst of an $800 million renovation on the 2.8 million-square-foot, Art Deco building, located at 433 W Van Buren Street. The first tenants are scheduled to move in by September. Steve Smith, Jamey Dix and Daniel Heckman of The Telos Group are the brokerage team tasked with bringing tenants to the rejuvenated property. Chicago-based Bear Construction is acting as general contractor on the project, implementing a Gensler design.
If Cisco leases space in the historic structure, they would join another Bay Area tech company, Uber, which will take approximately 450,000 square feet. Other firms that have confirmed leases in the building include Walgreens, Ferrara Candy, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, AbelsonTaylor, the Federal Home Loan Bank and Kroger subsidiaries Home Chef and 84.51°. If all of these deals close as reported, the Old Post Office would have more than 1.2 million square feet locked up.
