Wolverine Trading to Take Sublease at Chicago’s Old Post Office

The Loop’s foreclosure-wracked office market just took another hit as Wolverine Trading is shopping for space elsewhere.

The Chicago-based proprietary trading firm is close to a deal to move its headquarters and sublease nearly 83,000 square feet from staffing agency TrueBlue at the 2.5 million-square-foot Old Post Office, Crain’s reported. The move would be another blow for 175 West Jackson Boulevard, a distressed Loop office tower battling foreclosure, where Wolverine’s lease for about the same amount of space expires in May 2027.

Brokers Robert Sevim of Savills is leading negotiations on behalf of Wolverine, and Jack Keenan and Jack Deroche of Cushman & Wakefield on TrueBlue’s behalf.

TrueBlue put its entire Old Post Office footprint up for sublease this year after consolidating operations ahead of the pandemic and later reporting steep quarterly losses.

The potential move highlights the broader “flight to quality” trend in Chicago’s downtown, where Class A buildings posted a 21 percent vacancy rate at the end of the first quarter compared with 32 percent among Class B buildings, according to CBRE.

The Old Post Office, redeveloped by New York-based 601W Companies in a $1.3 billion overhaul, has become one of the city’s marquee office destinations, luring tenants such as Uber, PepsiCo, Walgreens, Cboe Global Markets and healthcare consultancy Vizient. As of early this year, it was 95 percent leased and generating nearly $65 million in annual net operating income.

601W is in advanced talks to buy the neighboring tower at 525 West Van Buren Street for under $40 million, potentially as much as 78 percent below its 2015 price, as deep-discount deals continue to shape Chicago’s battered Loop office market.

Brookfield Asset Management’s 175 West Jackson is 49 percent leased and facing foreclosure after its ownership defaulted on a $280 million loan in 2022.

Brookfield bought the 1.4 million-square-foot building in 2018 and invested $24 million in upgrades but never stabilized the asset before listing it for sale in May. A November appraisal valued it at just $84 million, a 72 percent drop from Brookfield’s purchase price.

— Judah Duke