The 50-story, Class A office tower at 35 W. Wacker, otherwise known as The Leo Burnett Building, has retained two major tenants within its 1.12 million square feet.
CBRE represented the owner of 35 W. Wacker Drive, an investor account advised by the U.S. real estate business of UBS Asset Management, in the negotiation and extension of leases for Publicis and law firm Winston & Strawn LLP, which total 899,815 square feet, collectively.
In the first transaction, Publicis renegotiated and extended its lease for 642,545 square feet. The firm, a digital group whose major brands include Starcom Mediavest Group and Leo Burnett Group., committed to a seven-year extension– its third lease renewal at the property over the last 27 years.
John Cowie, senior vice president, director of facilities operations for Resources, the Global Shared Services business unit of Publicis, said that Publicis will use this extension to more efficiently re-envision its workplace strategies, while continuing to call 35 West Wacker its home.
In the second transaction, Winston & Strawn, the other original co-anchor of the building, renegotiated and extended its lease in a manner to better accommodate the Publicis extension, while streamlining the organization’s footprint in the building.
“It was a win-win situation for everyone,” Alan Green of UBS, the asset manager for 35 West Wacker, said. “We retained two premier co-anchor tenants in the building, allowed both tenants to use the space more efficiently, while committing to re-invest in the property, ensuring it remains one of the premier office buildings in Chicago.”
Drew Nieman and Christy Domin of CBRE represented UBS in leases with Publicis and the law firm of Winston & Strawn LLP. The deal required a tri-party agreement between the landlord and both tenants, where Nancy Pacher of CBRE represented Winston & Strawn and Mike Christian and Steve Schneider of Cushman & Wakefield represented Publicis.
Designed by Roche & Dinkeloo, 35 W. Wacker was originally developed by The John Buck Company on behalf of Leo Burnett in 1989.
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