Zurich American Insurance Co. has decided to move its downtown office from 10 S. Riverside Plaza to 300 S. Riverside Plaza after signing a lease for a little more than 100,000 square feet.
The company has signed a lease for approximately 107,000 square feet at 300 S. Riverside Plaza in Chicago’s West Loop. The firm is the North American operating subsidiary of Swiss-based insurance giant, Zurich Insurance Group, and will move into space currently occupied by a division of insurance holding company AIG.
The move comes after Zurich American Insurance Co. made a commitment a year ago to hire 150 additional employees in the Chicago area, according to Marcus Cooper, Midwest regional executive for Zurich. The new location is designed to hold the company’s current staff of approximately 375 people in addition to the 150 new hires, Cooper said.
“The move actually gives us a couple of opportunities,” Cooper said. “One, from a global perspective, the organization’s focus is to reduce our carbon footprint and (300 S. Riverside) is a LEED-certified building. It also allows us to build out our dynamic work space, which will create more collaboration with our staff. And it keeps us in the heart of downtown, which keeps us closer to our brokers and our clients. We kind of look at it as a win-win all the way around.”
The Zurich lease represents more than half the space in the AIG lease that was scheduled to expire in mid-2014. In a three-way transaction, the ownership of 300 S. Riverside negotiated an early termination of the AIG lease in order to accommodate Zurich’s occupancy date. This solution allowed the space to remain occupied with no downtime and leaves the building more than 91 percent leased long term.
Zurich American Insurance Co. also has a small legal office at 33 N. Dearborn St., which will also be part of the move, according to Cooper. Zurich’s current North American headquarters is in Schaumburg, which has about 2,500 workers.
The company’s new Chicago office space will be located on the 20th and 21st floors. Zurich has already begun remodeling its new Chicago office space. The move will take place during the second quarter of 2014.
“Having a strong presence in the City of Chicago, as well as our North American headquarters in Schaumburg, Ill., underscores our continued commitment to growth and partnership in Chicagoland,” said Mike Foley, CEO of Zurich North America Commercial, in a written statement.
The Telos Group LLC structured the transaction on behalf of the building ownership.
“This was a complex transaction that required creativity and flexibility from everyone involved,” said Matt Pistorio, senior vice president of Telos. “We are pleased to represent an ownership group with the confidence and foresight to pursue this early recapture of the AIG space.”
Todd Mintz and Andy Strand of the Chicago office of DTZ represented Zurich, while David Findling of Cushman and Wakefield represented AIG.
