After more than three decades in the same Chicago office, law firm Nisen & Elliott is on the move and decreasing its footprint in the Loop, as the legal industry has been on the forefront of navigating real estate needs during the pandemic.
The firm is heading to a 15,000-square-foot lease of a partial floor at 180 North LaSalle Street, down from 22,000 square feet it had occupied at 200 West Adams Street since 1987. Terms of the lease were not disclosed. Nisen was represented by tenant-focused brokerage Savills.
Broker Eric Feinberg of Savills said the law firm wanted to “refresh its office footprint as the firm’s workplace strategy evolves” with the move into the 38-story, Class A office tower owned by Canadian investment firm Ivanhoe Cambridge.
Amid downtown Chicago’s stalling office recovery, law firm tenants have fueled much of the leasing demand in the central business district of late. With companies reevaluating their real estate requirements as remote work becomes more prevalent, law firms have tended to downsize less drastically because attorneys are more likely to prefer or require individual desks and offices than workers in other industries.
Last month, global law firm Eversheds Sutherland inked a lease to occupy the top floor – totaling 21,000 square feet – at the Tishman Speyer-owned 227 West Monroe Street tower in a deal also brokered by Savills.
Still, law firms alone haven’t been able to stop the bleeding for downtown landlords as other industries, especially technology firms, downsize or prepare to do so soon by offering more space on the sublease market.
The city’s total office leasing dropped to its lowest level in more than a year last quarter, according to a report from Savills, with transactions totaling 1.8 million square feet. Even more space was put onto the sublease market in the quarter, setting a new record-high of 6.6 million square feet.
It’s also notable that Nisen chose to stay in the Loop. New office buildings west of the Chicago River, including Fulton Market properties, as well as River North have drawn more leasing than the Central Loop, though some big tenants have recently elected to stay in the Loop despite its older building stock. After a search across the downtown area, financial services firm Morningstar last quarter signed on to renew its Loop lease for 226,000 square feet at its longtime home in 22 West Washington Street.
Some brokers expect Loop demand to increase as a low-cost alternative to the city’s newest developments, which are achieving more rapid absorption than vacancies in older properties.
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