Source: Appraisal Research Counselors
Kirkland & Ellis law firm has hired the Chicago office of real estate firm Staubach Co. to study its long-term space needs, including a possible move from Aon Center, where the prominent law firm has been headquartered since 1972.
The 945-lawyer firm has five offices in the U.S. and one in London.
“The overriding project will be to analyze our options in Chicago: whether to move to other locations, whether to stay in this building,” said Douglas McLemore, the firm administrator, who confirmed Staubach’s hiring.
Kirkland’s lease at Aon Center runs until 2011. But large tenants have increasingly started to test the market years before their leases expire, especially if they are big enough to anchor a new building.
Last year, Kirkland paid $13.67 a square foot, not including taxes and operating expenses, for about 351,200 square feet of space, according to Atlanta-based Wells Real Estate Investment Trust. Wells owns the skyscraper at 200 E. Randolph St., which is 92 percent leased.
Kirkland & Ellis is taking an additional 30,000 square feet in Aon Center this year, and has about 70,000 square feet in nearby Prudential Plaza, McLemore said.
West Van Buren deal: West Side residential developer James Engel has a contract to acquire 1224 W. Van Buren St., a 200,000-square-foot loft office building with an adjacent 150-car parking lot.
The seller is Palatine-based First Bank and Trust Co. of Illinois, which gained control of the property from developer Jack Pressman, who once planned to convert it into a telecom center.
The price is about $7.8 million, sources said. Engel, a principal in Chicago-based Metro Developers LLC, could not be reached for comment. Rosemont-based real estate firm Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler Inc., which represents the bank, declined to comment.
Medical Arts Building sold: Northfield-based real estate investment firm Montero Partners Ltd. said it purchased the Northwest Medical Arts Building in Arlington Heights from an investment group that includes doctors with offices in the 61,500-square-foot building. The price was about $6 million.
Jupiter Realty lease: Jupiter Realty Corp. and its affiliates have leased about 21,000 square feet of space at 401 N. Michigan Ave., said Donald Smith, chief executive of the Chicago-based investment firm, which is moving from 919 N. Michigan Ave. 401 is owned by Chicago-based Zeller Realty Corp.
Downers Grove space: Skokie-based developer Alter Group has leased 21,600 square feet of space at the Corridors Three office building in Downers Grove to Toyota Financial Services. Staubach represented the finance arm of the Japanese automaker. Also, Cardiac Surgery Associates is taking 8,500 square feet in the building.
Prudential Plaza exec: San Francisco-based Shorenstein Co. has named Andrea Saewitz senior leasing representative of Prudential Plaza, the 2.1million-square-foot office complex overlooking Millennium Park.
Saewitz, 48, began her career in 1981 with Met Structures, the developer of the East Loop’s Illinois Center complex. Most recently, the Brooklyn native was director of leasing at 123 N. Wacker Drive, owned by Prentiss Properties Trust.
Occupancy rise: The occupancy rate in the downtown apartment market rose in the fourth quarter of 2003 compared with the fourth quarter of 2002, marking the fourth straight quarter in which rates have risen from the year-earlier period.
As expected, in the fourth quarter, traditionally the slowest quarter for leasing activity, the rate slipped compared with the third quarter, according to the Downtown Chicago Residential Benchmark Report by Appraisal Research Counselors Ltd.
Effective rents held steady in luxury buildings compared with the fourth quarter of 2002, despite competition from new projects such as Grand Plaza, 540 N. State St., and Park Millennium, 222 N. Columbus Drive.
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But concessions will continue to be a factor in the market until the occupancy rate approaches 95 percent, the report says.