JLL is looking to slash its Chicago footprint by more than 30%, joining the likes of Salesforce, Meta, Uber and Tyson Foods in putting a significant chunk of its office space on the sublease market.
The firm is looking to sublease out about 61.3K SF of its 202K SF headquarters space in the 83-story Aon Center, CoStar reported, citing JLL marketing materials.
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The pullback puts JLL on a long list of companies looking to cut square footage — and costs — amid the rise of remote work and concern about the future of the office market.
But it carries extra resonance coming from the world’s second-largest commercial real estate brokerage, typically enlisted for leasing and selling buildings like Aon Center, the city’s fourth-tallest skyscraper, which is located at 200 East Randolph St. and overlooks Millennium Park.
JLL is hoping to unload space on the tower’s 47th and 48th floors, and it is throwing in the furniture, CoStar reported. The lease for the block runs through May 2032. JLL is the building’s third-largest tenant after its namesake Aon, with 640K SF, and KPMG, with 307K SF. Other large tenants include Kraft Heinz and Peoples Gas, CoStar reported.
“While the way we work has changed, and flexibility is here to stay, the office remains central to reinforce culture, drive collaboration and innovation and enable professional growth,” a JLL spokesman said in a statement sent to Crain’s Chicago Business.
“Just as we’re helping clients with their workplace transformations, we’re doing the same at our own JLL offices that remain a central hub for where our people work each day,” the statement continued. “Following a detailed analysis and feedback from JLL employees of how our Chicago headquarters at the Aon Center is being used, we identified opportunities to optimize our workspace and bring our teams closer together, which has resulted in a decision to sublease a portion of our office space.”
Available sublease space in Chicago’s CBD exceeded an unprecedented 8M SF in June, Transwestern reported. There were 414 subleases available as of the end of Q2.
JLL reported a net loss of $9.2M in first-quarter earnings in May, a massive drop from a $145.6M profit one year earlier. The brokerage attributed the decline to the impact of the banking crisis, rising interest rates and lower demand for commercial space.
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