Amalgamated Bank of Chicago Heads to North Wacker Drive

A century-old Chicago lender is trading LaSalle Street for Wacker Drive, as the Loop’s office-to-resi push reshapes its longtime home.

Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, also known as ABOC, signed a 12-year lease for roughly 40,000 square feet at the building at 101 North Wacker Drive, the bank confirmed to CoStar News. The deal will house a new branch and executive offices, with a move-in slated for the fall.

The relocation pulls the 104-year-old institution from its current headquarters at 30 North LaSalle Street, a 43-story tower slated for a partial residential conversion. Plans call for 349 apartments as part of the city’s broader effort to swap aging Loop office space for housing, particularly along the LaSalle Street corridor.

The lease comes a little more than a decade after ABOC moved into the building at 30 North LaSalle Street following the sale of its prior 100 South State Street headquarters building. This time, the bank is opting for a riverfront address in a 23-story tower completed in 1976 and owned by LaSalle Investment Management. The building is more than 81 percent leased, according to CoStar data.

Jeff Dowdell and Lauren Sharpe of Telos Group represent the landlord in leasing.

In a statement to CoStar, a bank spokesperson cited the move as modernizing and a chance to plant itself in one of the city’s most sought-after office corridors. The shift also reflects a broader tenant recalibration in the Loop, where firms are gravitating toward newer or recently updated buildings, as older towers struggle with vacancies and repositionings, according to the publication.

Founded in 1922 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, now known as Workers United, the bank historically served union members and local businesses. It remains independent after a proposed $98 million sale to New York-based Amalgamated Bank’s publicly traded parent company, Amalgamated Financial, fell apart in 2022. The parent company cited an inability to obtain Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approval and walked away from the deal, prompting pushback from the Chicago bank.

The New York bank was founded by labor organizer Sidney Hillman in 1923 and the leaders of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, according to its website, though the two banks remain unaffiliated.

— Eric Weilbacher