Leases more than doubled for 2 companies in West Loop office building

Two companies more than doubled their leases at 191 North Wacker Drive in Chicago’s West Loop.

Software company Qualtrics and nonprofit Skills for Chicagoland’s Future expanded their leases in the 37-story, 734,000-square-foot office building, ReJournals reported.

Qualtrics expanded its lease to 51,200 square feet from 25,600 and will occupy an entire floor, using the offices to run its Midwest operations. The nonprofit, which focuses on finding good jobs for the unemployed and underemployed, expanded to 13,290 square feet from 3,828.

It’s a bit of good news for Chicago landlords after the downtown office vacancy rate jumped by almost 24 percent between the end of 2020 and the end of last year. It hit a record 20.3 percent in the fourth quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

While Chicago’s office market did have 2.7 million square feet of new leases in the final quarter of 2021, the highest since the pandemic, recovery to 2019 levels remains a long way off.

One company is looking to sell the West Loop office building it owns at 600 West Jackson Boulevard. San Francisco’s Stockbridge Capital is set to take a loss on the sale of the 116,879-square-foot building as bids are expected to come in about $16 million, significantly less than the $23.5 million Stockbridge paid for the property in 2017.

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[RJ] — Victoria Pruitt