Irvine Company inks firms to 103K sf of leases at 1 North Wacker

Irvine Company Office Properties signed five companies to leases totaling 103,300 square feet at 1 North Wacker Drive, helping cushion the blow from anchor tenant UBS’ decision to scale back its footprint in the building.

Fitch Group, the financial services company that includes Fitch Ratings, will move employees next year from its current offices at 70 West Madison Street to take 65,400 square feet inside 1 North Wacker, also known as the UBS Tower, Irvine announced Tuesday.

Accounting firm Wipfli LLP, asset management firm Heard Capital and private equity firms The Jordan Company and May River Capital will combine to take another 38,000 square feet inside the 50-story tower. All five leases were signed “in the last few months,” an Irvine spokesperson said.

In November, UBS announced it would shed 100,000 square feet inside the tower in the coming years, shrinking its presence there by more than a third.

The leases announced Wednesday will raise the tower’s occupancy to 94 percent, the spokesperson said.

California-based Irvine bought a partial stake in the UBS Tower in 2011, a decade after it was completed by the John Buck Company, and bought the rest of the building in 2015. It also owns the 60-story tower at 300 North Lasalle Drive and the 48-story office building at 71 South Wacker Drive.

More than 3 million square feet of new office space is expected to be completed Downtown this year, pushing up the city’s vacancy rate and pressuring the owners of older office buildings to either upgrade or shell out generous tenant concessions.