GE Transportation, a unit of General Electric Co., has signed a new 53,972-square-foot lease and will move its corporate headquarters from Erie, Penn., to 500 W. Monroe in downtown Chicago.
Steve Smith, Gary Kostecki and Brad Despot of Jones Lang LaSalle finalized the lease agreement on behalf of Atlanta-based Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc., with Jeff Samaras of Cushman & Wakefield representing GE.
GE Transportation CEO Lorenzo Simonelli and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced in late May that the company would move to Chicago from its long-time home in Pennsylvania. After spending the last several months evaluating options throughout the city, the company eventually decided on the 23rd and 24th floors at 500 W. Monroe, a 1 million-square-foot Class A office tower at the northwest corner of Monroe and Canal streets in the city’s West Loop.
Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and completed in 1991, the 46-story tower is the tallest building west of the Chicago River and features views of the city and Lake Michigan as well as access to Ogilvie Station, Union Station, the CTA’s Washington “L” Station and the Kennedy Expressway. The building also features one of the largest contiguous blocks of available office space in the entire city, a 310,000-square-foot space on floors 33 to 44.
