Thornton Tomasetti downsizes in jump to Fulton River District

Engineering consultant Thornton Tomasetti has cut its Chicago office footprint by more than 40 percent with a move to the edge of the city’s hottest submarket.

The firm is headed to an almost 19,000-square-foot space on the seventh floor of Parkside Realty’s 600 West Fulton Street, leaving behind 32,000 square feet at 330 North Wabash Avenue in River North that it has occupied for more than a decade.

“With our staff fully back in the office, we require modern space that fosters collaboration and creativity, not only between our employees but our clients as well, and attracts top talent. 600 West Fulton checked all the boxes,” Thornton Tomasetti’s Rachel Michelin said in a statement.

While the office market in Chicago’s central business district struggles with a glut of vacant space and loads of sublease offerings, the Fulton Market District — just to the west of 600 West Fulton — has been on a roll in drawing new tenants to its trendy and amenity-filled spaces.

The Fulton Market and River West areas were one of two submarkets with positive lease absorption last quarter, at 104,000 square feet, while tenants have shed more space than they’ve leased throughout the overall market via moves similar to Thornton’s. Downtown Chicago’s net absorption as a whole tallied negative 782,000 square feet, according to the brokerage Transwestern.

JLL’s Molly Carroll and Andy Strand represented Thornton Tomasetti in the negotiations. Parkside Realty’s Barb Schenberg represented the landlord.

The nine-story, 214,000-square-foot 600 West Fulton Street is an adaptive reuse of the original Sears & Roebuck warehouse. It was converted to a loft-style office building in 1982 and was fully renovated in 2021. 

Thornton Tomasetti’s move brings the building to 76 percent leased and is the latest in a string of recent deals for the property. Matthews Real Estate Investment Services opened an office for its debt and equity services division in November, and Pittsburgh-based Elite Transit Solutions recently opened its first Chicago office there as well. Kindle Communications also relocated to the building last year. Access Community Health Network and Epstein Global also lease space in the building.