Fulton East snags second tenant, leasing 11,000 sf to flooring company

A flooring company signed a lease for about 10 percent of Fulton East, six months after the 90,000-square-foot building welcomed its first tenant to a Chicago neighborhood developing so quickly that it may need its own commuter rail station.

Tarkett, which traces its roots back to 1880, will occupy the 10th floor of 215 North Peoria Street taking up about 11,000 square feet, according to a news release from developer Parkside Realty. It will relocate from a 9,000-square-foot showroom at 222 West Merchandise Mart Plaza.

The Fulton Market location will help make “greater connections with the broader interior design community,” Chris Johnson, Tarkett’s vice president of commercial sales, said in the release.

While the area’s office vacancy rate reached 25.5 percent in the third quarter, a touch above the downtown average, the figure also reflects the pace of development: More than 40 Fulton Market projects are under way. Big companies that already have offices there include McDonald’s, Google, Kimberly Clark and Tock.

Fulton East is a 12-story building with space for showrooms, offices and retail stores. Its first tenant, asset management firm Calamos Investments, signed a multi-year lease in April for the top two floors. About two-thirds of the building, completed in November 2020, remains vacant.