As companies embrace remote work, one is offering its entire East Loop office for sublease.
Online consumer lender OppFi listed almost 80,000 square feet that it leases in Prudential Plaza at 130 East Randolph Street, adding to a surplus of downtown office space on the secondary market, Crain’s reported. OppFi has four floors of the 41-story building.
Three of the floors included in the space are contiguous — floors 33-35 — and could be subleased through all or part of the remaining lease that runs through August 2030.
As some companies move workers back to the office, others that are sticking to a remote work model are trying to unload space they no longer need. Almost 6.3 million square feet of downtown Chicago office space was available as of July 1, 95 percent more than when the pandemic began in early 2020.
OppFi, previously known as OppLoans, plans to keep about as much as 30,000 square feet of office space, although it’s willing to relocate if a subletter is interested in the entire location.
“While we would love to retain our premier space downtown, we believe that our company can continue to operate efficiently and effectively with a hybrid model,” a statement from OppFi said.
The decision to downsize comes on the heels of a decrease in the number of OppFi’s employees. The company employs 461 people, down from 541 in March and 573 at the end of last year. The cuts coincided with management shakeups: CEO Neville Crawley left in February after less than two months and CFO Shiven Shah left a month later.
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[CCB] — Victoria Pruitt