CIM nets Loop lease expansion with Chicago Trading

Firm now occupies almost 160k sf across five floors

Chicago Trading's Melvin Williams with 425 South Financial Place
Chicago Trading's Melvin Williams with 425 South Financial Place (425 South Financial Place, LinkedIn, Getty)

Shaul Kuba’s CIM Group landed a rare deal for the pandemic era with a trading firm tenant’s lease expansion in the Loop.

Chicago Trading is growing its office footprint in the 40-story building by more than 46,000 square feet, diverging from the recent tenant tendency to cut back on commercial real estate as many employers settle into allowing work from home at least part of the week, Crain’s reported.

Building owner CIM Group said Chicago Trading signed a lease for the seventh and eighth floors, which adds to the company’s existing office on the sixth, fifth and fourth floors. The firm, which is the largest tenant in the office building, now leases almost 160,000 square feet in the tower.

CBRE’s Mark Keebler and Brad Serot represented Chicago Trading in the lease negotiation and Kelsey Scheuve and Kelsey Morgan, with the same firm, oversee leasing for the Financial Place office tower.

The expansion continues to boost the building’s occupancy as investment firm Loop Capital Markets also relocated its headquarters this year to the CIM-owned property from an office about the same size in a Central Loop building at 111 West Jackson Boulevard.

Chicago Trading spokesman Melvin Williams said the firm needed the extra space because more of its workers have been returning to the office recently.

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The firm considered moving to other neighborhoods, but ultimately decided to stay in the Loop and bet on the district’s future.

Los Angeles-based CIM Group has owned the 40-story office tower, which previously had an address of 440 South LaSalle Street, since 2016. The company paid $189 million for the building, which was 72 percent leased at the time.

CIM Group’s renovation of the building’s lobby relocated the main entrance to Financial Place, and it was about 77 percent leased prior to the deals with Loop Capital and Chicago Trading, meaning it’s likely now outperforming the Loop’s average vacancy rate of 23.5 percent as of the third quarter, according to CBRE.

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— Victoria Pruitt