Google kicks off Thompson Center revamp forecasting shift to Loop

Google is moving full steam ahead on the Thompson Center.

Its developers Mike Reschke and Quintin Primo on Monday kicked off the most crucial of its projects aimed at reinvigorating the Chicago Loop from the pandemic, after remote work and interest rate hikes decimated the office market.

Reshcke and Primo were joined by Google leadership, Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to mark the start of work on the tech giant’s plans to modernize the Thompson Center, the 1.2-million-square-foot spaceship-shaped former state government office building at the corner of Randolph and LaSalle Streets.

Hundreds of people, including several other big names in Chicago real estate attended the Thompson Center ceremony, including Jeff Shapack of his eponymous Fulton Market development firm and Regina Stilp, principal of megaproject Bronzeville Lakefront’s developer Farpoint, along with former Chicago Planning Commissioner David Refiman, who’s now the real estate practice chair at law firm Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres.

Google plans to occupy the entire building as its Chicago office hub, shifting the majority of the company’s gravity into the Loop — where there’s heavy public transit service — from Fulton Market.

“The Google employees who will call this building home will be another piece in the complex, thriving puzzle of the Loop’s infrastructure and ecosystem, making our economy and our skyline stronger,” Pritzker said.

Google agreed in 2022 to pay Reschke and Primo’s venture to renovate the Thompson Center, after which Google would absorb ownership of it. That came at a most vulnerable time for the city’s office market, which is still in a crisis, as tenants are cutting back on leases while interest rate hikes diminish landlords’ equity in their buildings.

The tech firm agreed to buy the Thompson Center for $105 million, after Reschke’s bid to buy it from the state for about $70 million was approved in late 2021. Primo was integral to landing Google’s interest to occupy the building.

Google has so far paid Reschke and Primo’s development venture $156 million to get started on the work for the project, which will include removing the structure’s metal and glass skin — partial demolition of its exterior started last week. 

“Modernizing it for today and future generations is challenging but will have a transformative impact on not only our city but also the nation’s architecture and real estate communities,” Primo said.

The Thompson Center’s overhaul is key to revitalizing the Loop, as Chicago’s office vacancy recently spiked to more than 25 percent for the first time in history, jeopardizing many landlords and calling into question the future of the heart of the city, with a slew of office-to-residential conversions in the pipeline as a potential answer.

Another venture of Primo and Reshcke is set to capitalize on the office-to-resi vision, further contributing to the Loop’s transformation as city officials direct public funds to building conversions. The developers are working together on turning the former BMO Harris bank office building at 111 West Monroe Street into hundreds of apartments and hotel rooms, while Reschke’s Prime Group is pursuing an apartments plan for a five-floor block of offices at 208 South LaSalle Street, where his company already operates two hotels.

The city has dedicated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax increment finance incentives toward those two projects and several others pitched by developers with interests in buildings on and near LaSalle Street through the Loop.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the nature of Google’s $156 million payment to the development group.

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