Union Investment to build out full floor at its 111 South Wacker office tower

Union Investment Real Estate Gmbh is building out the 32nd floor of its 111 South Wacker Drive for a new tenant.

The German investment firm received a building permit to renovate the floor’s more than 28,000 square feet at the office tower.

The work is being done for a new tenant, which signed a lease for the space and has plans to move in by the summer, said Jamey Dix of Telos, the Chicago-based real estate services firm that specializes in leasing office properties. Dix would not disclose the new tenant or describe the work being done.

The 51-story tower was developed by the John Buck Company and delivered in 2005, the same year it was sold to Union Investment. In 2017, parts of the building were renovated. Work included expansion of the fitness center, a tenant lounge and coffee bar, and the redevelopment of the building’s conference center. Union Investment owns 17 office buildings in the U.S., according to its website.

Anchoring the building is accounting firm Deloitte, which downsized its footprint by about 200,000 square feet in early 2018.

Office rents were at an all-time high in Chicago in the third quarter of 2018, thanks in part to corporate relocations and a strong economy. Chicago’s central business district has been adding jobs, with 20,000 more private-sector employees working in the area in 2018. Vacancy rates for Downtown Chicago’s office market has hovered around 13 percent for the last year.