Prime Group Realty Trust has announced that Latham & Watkins LLP has executed a lease agreement and will relocate its Chicago office to 330 N. Wabash Ave. on or about April 2014. Latham & Watkins is leasing approximately 137,000 rentable square feet in the building.
The initial term of the lease is 15 years. The lease terms include expansion, contraction and renewal options for Latham & Watkins consistent with those negotiated in the market for lease transactions of this size and nature.
The building that will serve as Latham’s new office was designed by architect Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1971. It was designated with landmark status by the City of Chicago in 2008. The owner of 330 N. Wabash Avenue is a joint venture between subsidiaries of Prime Group Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust headquartered in Chicago, and Five Mile Capital Partners LLC, a Connecticut-based commercial real estate and alternative investment firm. PGRT is the property manager and leasing agent for the property. Latham & Watkins was represented in its search by Scott Gamber, Todd Lippman and Kyle Kamin of CB Richard Ellis, and PGRT was represented by its Executive Vice President of Leasing Steven R. Baron.
The building has undergone and is currently undergoing a renovation that includes a new fire and life safety system, new restrooms, elevator cab modernization, updating the building’s HVAC system and asbestos abatement. Also under construction are a new 5,000-square-foot fitness center and a combined food service and conference room center.
“We are very pleased to announce that Latham & Watkins has chosen to move its Chicago office to 330 N. Wabash,” said Jeff Patterson, Prime Group Realty Trust’s president and chief executive officer. “Taken together with the recently announced American Medical Association and SmithBucklin Corp. leases, the Latham & Watkins lease brings the office portion of 330 N. Wabash Ave. to approximately 84 percent leased and results in a total of about 521,000 square feet of new leases completed at the building in the last 30 days.”
“A combination of location, architectural significance and the high-quality original construction and renovations at 330 N. Wabash are all attractive qualities to us,” said Rick Levy, managing partner of Latham & Watkins’ Chicago office.
A new Langham Chicago Hotel on floors two through 13 of 330 N. Wabash also is scheduled to be open in the second quarter of 2013. The hotel will feature approximately 316 rooms and suites and will include a full service restaurant, meeting and conference facilities, as well as a fitness facility and the hotel’s wellness retreat, Chuan Spa.
