Two major downtown employers plan to cut back their office square footage requirements, adding more than 120K SF to the city’s growing pile of available sublease space.
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PR and marketing firm Edelman and neighboring Here Technologies will both vacate significant swaths, Crain’s Chicago Business reports, citing marketing materials advertising space at both locations. Chicago-headquartered Edelman is offering 28K SF, or a third of its space, at 111 North Canal St. for sublease, while Here Technologies is marketing two of its floors in the Boeing Building next door, adding 95K SF to the 44K SF it has been trying to unburden itself of since before the pandemic.
The news comes just days after reports emerged that aviation giant Boeing would move its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia, likely vacating a dozen or so floors in its namesake building.
Sublease availability is on the rise nationally, and Chicago has been hit particularly hard, with an estimated 6M SF of downtown offices available for sublease as of last week, according to Crain's, citing CBRE data — a more than 80% jump from the beginning of the pandemic.
Edelman's decision to cut its footprint comes just six months after it moved into 92K SF in the Gogo building, in itself a significant paring back from the 165K SF it previously leased at the Aon Center. Here Technologies said in a statement it made space available for sublease as it adjusts to a hybrid work policy that allows for in-person collaboration but gives employees "the flexibility to accomplish the majority of work each week from wherever they choose, including home."
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois parent Health Care Service Corp. is also adding to the sublease market, offering up two floors at Aon Center, and Motorola Solutions is marketing about 30% of its headquarters at 500 West Monroe St.
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