A New Jersey-based insurer plans to move two local offices into roughly 17,000 square feet at 1 S. Wacker Drive, bucking the trend of West Loop office tenants renewing their leases.
A unit of Crum & Forster Holdings Corp. signed a 15-year direct lease for 17,198 square feet on the 13th floor of the 40-story tower at the corner of Wacker Drive and Madison Street. The lease begins Oct. 1, 2010, according to Michael Curran of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., who represented the building, and tenant broker Cushman & Wakefield.
Morristown. N.J.-based Crum & Forster is vacating two nearby offices, at 10 S. Wacker Drive and at the Civic Opera Building, 20 N. Wacker Drive. The company has 16,000 square feet at 10 S. Wacker and 5,000 square feet at the opera building, according to Cushman.
Crum & Forster Holdings is made up of commercial property and casualty insurance companies such as U.S. Fire Insurance Co., Seneca Insurance Co. and the North River Insurance Co.
The West Loop submarket’s overall vacancy rate was 15.8% at the end of the third quarter, up from 13.6% in the second quarter and 12.9% and the end of last year, according to a report from Jones Lang LaSalle.
Looking to cut costs, many tenants are hesitant to move their offices, particularly in the West Loop, which “notably . . . was dominated by renewals, including expansions and contractions,” according to the report.
1 S. Wacker also has an example of the renewal trend.
York Insurance Services Group Inc. signed a six-year renewal for 6,593 square feet on the 29th floor at 1 S. Wacker, Mr. Curran says. The lease now expires in 2015 for Parsippany, N.J.-based York, which provides claims-handling and other insurance and risk management services.
Pension fund TIAA-CREF owns 1 S. Wacker, which is almost 1.2 million square feet. The building is 84% leased, Mr. Curran says.
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