The 601W Companies has landed a major new tenant for its property at 433 W. Van Buren St., the Old Chicago Main Post Office building.
Cisco Systems will move from its suburban location in Rosemont to heart of Chicago, finalizing a deal that’s been in the making since June 2019. The IT company will take over 12,542 square meters (135,000 square feet), with 1,200 employees working out of its new “Midwest regional hub.”
In 2016, 601W acquired the 260,129-square-meter (2.8-million-square-foot) post office building for USD$130 million, including 2.2 hectares (5.5 acres) of adjacent building land. The company embarked on a revitalization effort, removing debris and asbestos from the dilapidated building, and replacing the windows, elevators, electrical and plumbing systems, HVAC, façade, roofing, and flooring. It is now valued at over US$2 billion and stands at 86 percent leased. The tenant mix includes Walgreens Boots Alliance, Ferrara Candy, Uber, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, AbelsonTaylor, and the parent company of the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
Chicago suburban office vacancies rose to 26.1 percent as of the end of June, which is the highest mark in the last two decades, according to reporting in Crain’s Chicago Business.
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