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Gogo shedding 86K sf in West Loop HQ in cost-cutting purge
The in-flight WiFi company is looking to sublease a third of its space in the JPMorgan-owned building at 111 North Canal
Gogo is looking to sublease two floors of office space in its namesake West Loop office building as part of its sweeping campaign to cut costs and staunch losses.
The in-flight WiFi tech firm is marketing 86,000 square feet, or roughly a third of its space, in its headquarters at 111 North Canal Street, sometimes called the Gogo Building, according to Crain’s. The company has called the building home since it moved from suburban Itasca in 2014.
A marketing flyer distributed by JLL says Gogo’s lease on its share of the building runs through 2028.
The firm reported an operating loss of $26.9 million last year and $64.2 million in 2017, according to financial reports cited in Crain’s.
Sterling Bay bought the century-old, 860,000-square-foot building at 111 North Canal for $100 million in 2012, then launched a major renovation before selling it to JPMorgan Asset Management for $305 million in 2015. Sterling Bay still manages the property.
In addition to Gogo, the building’s tenants include Twitter, Pinterest and Uber Technologies. Last year, tech consulting firm Solstice signed a lease to roughly double its footprint in the building to 60,000 square feet.
Rising rents and steady overall vacancy show there’s no lack of demand for new office space Downtown — especially in the West Loop and River North, where new companies are racing to snatch up space among a growing tech cluster.
But the Gogo building will soon have to compete with millions of square feet of new office space in its own backyard, as the nearby Old Post Office redevelopment and BMO Tower take shape during the next several years. [Crain’s] — Alex Nitkin