601W inks Uber to massive lease deal. Here’s what’s next at the $800M Old Post Office

Uber will take more space than previously expected at the Old Main Post Office, after inking a lease at 601W Companies’ redevelopment project that is the fourth largest lease in five years.

The California-based ride-hailing company has signed a 10-year lease for 463,000 square feet, becoming the anchor tenant at the massive complex at 433 West Van Buren Street, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The lease is the largest signed this year and the fourth largest in the last five years, the Tribune reports. It trails only Bank of America, Salesforce and BMO Financial Group, each of which signed at least 500,000-square-foot leases in the last few years.

It’s also a major ramping up of Uber’s presence in Chicago. After starting with 12,000 square feet in Fulton Market, the firm will combine at least two local offices into the Old Post Office, with plans to hire hundreds more, according to the Tribune.

The lease is more good news for New York-based 601W, whose $800 million post office redevelopment has turned the 2.5-million-square-foot building into one of the city’s hottest office properties.

Walgreens has plans to take 200,000 square feet in the post office. Other confirmed tenants include ad agency AbelsonTaylor, Ferrara Candy, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and two separate ventures of grocery chain Kroger. In June, 601W said it was on track to have the post office at 75 percent leased by the end of the year.

Uber will begin its office build out next Spring, according to the Tribune.

[Chicago Tribune] — Joe Ward