Advertising firm moves into Fulton Market District

A creative advertising agency is moving into the Fulton Market District after selling its former offices for a windfall.

Schafer Condon Carter will move into a 15,000-square-foot space on the third floor of 176 North Racine Avenue, at a 135,000-square-foot building developed by McCaffery Interests on the corner of Lake Street and Racine, the Chicago Business Journal reported.

The move follows Schafer’s decision to sell its former West Loop office building at 1029 West Madison Avenue to the Feil Organization in 2018 for $13.1 million. Schaefer had bought that four-story, 35,000-square-foot building for $1.3 million in 2010.

Schaefer had remained a tenant of the Madison building as Feil became its landlord for several years, and then downsized with its move into the McCaffrey building. Other tenants have made similar moves to shrink their real estate footprints while moving into Fulton Market spaces considered higher quality to Chicago’s older office buildings in the Loop and West Loop.

Another marketing firm made a similar deal this year to Schaefer’s 2018 sale to Feil. Chicago-based AgencyEA cashed in with a sale of the 41,000 square foot River North property at 311 West Walton Street for $14.4 million to a Spanish investor, and leased back the office building to remain its tenant. The deal more than tripled the $4.6 million AgencyEA paid for the building in 2014.

Back in Fulton Market, Schaefer will join Coca-Cola, Bissell, Datassential and ServiceNow as a tenant in the McCaffery-managed property. Craig Coupe of JLL brokered the deal for Schafer to move into the seven-story building, which is branded as Twelve01West.

Coupe told the outlet that Twelve01West, which was completed in 2019, has a penthouse-level wellness center, indoor and outdoor rooftop space and 20,000 total square feet of outdoor hangouts.

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