Law firm inks deal for Fulton Market tower, continuing the trend of corporate moves

Chicago-based law firm Greenberg Traurig has signed an agreement to move its headquarters from 77 W. Wacker Drive to a new development under construction in the Fulton Market neighborhood. The move continues the exodus of tenants from downtown Chicago as companies seek out new office buildings that provide better amenities and are more likely to entice employees back to the workplace.

The global firm will occupy 90,000 square feet in 360 N. Green St., a 24-story tower that developer Sterling Bay plans to finish next year. The surrounding neighborhood west of the Loop, transformed in the past decade from an industrial district into a sleek office center packed with restaurants, retail and boutique hotels, was part of its appeal, said Rita Powers, comanaging shareholder of the firm’s Chicago office.

“There’s no question the Fulton Market is tremendously vibrant,” she said. “That’s a winning formula for us.”

The new 500,000-square-foot building will also give Greenberg Traurig employees access to outdoor balconies on every floor, and a midtier deck with green space.

“It’s hard to have that where we are now,” Powers said.

Greenberg Traurig’s decision helps cement Fulton Market, already home to Google and McDonald’s world headquarters, as one of the nation’s hottest office markets. Its vacancy rate has been dropping since early 2022, even though developers in three years added millions of square feet in 15 new complexes, according to a report from Colliers International. Meanwhile, the Central Loop’s many outdated buildings struggle to attract tenants, and 31.7% of its space was available by the end of June, the most ever and up from 29.4% one year ago.

“As we all know, it gets real quiet these days in the Loop,” said Michael Fishman, vice chairman of Greenberg Traurig’s Chicago office.

The 51-story building at 77 W. Wacker Drive was completed in 1992, and is now 62% leased, according to CoStar.

Sterling Bay previously secured another deal for 360 N. Green St., now 70% leased, with Boston Consulting Group, which will leave 300 N. LaSalle St. and occupy 223,000 square feet starting in early 2025.

360 N. Green St. was designed to attract professional services firms and law offices, said Bob Chodos, vice chairman of Newmark, who helped represent Greenberg Traurig in the transaction. Most attorneys need private spaces, and the slender, rectangular shape of Sterling Bay’s new building, along with floor-to-ceiling windows, ensures associates and partners won’t get buried in back offices without views of the skyline.

“You have to find a way to help people want to make the commute,” he said. “These are the things that make people say, ‘I’m going to do the drive.’”

The willingness of law firms to move west to Fulton Market could be another headache for Loop landlords. Lawyers historically clustered near the Loop’s downtown courts, but this year global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright opened an office in Fulton Market, leasing the top floors of 1045 W. Fulton Market, a 12-story tower completed in 2022.

Powers said many court appearances now happen on Zoom, so the firm’s litigators don’t have to rush back and forth as often, and in any case, downtown is just a few minutes away.

“We think on balance that the extra five minutes it takes to get to court is outweighed by all the other advantages of this building,” she said.