Illinois Housing Agency Signs 72K sf Lease at Michigan Plaza

Illinois’ affordable housing finance agency is relocating from a foreclosure-troubled East Loop office tower to Michigan Plaza in Chicago.

The Illinois Housing Development Authority signed a 72,645-square-foot lease at 225 North Michigan Avenue, according to Transwestern, which handles leasing for the property, as was first reported by Crain’s. The agency will move later this year from its current offices at 111 East Wacker Drive in Illinois Center, where its roughly 67,000-square-foot lease expires in October.

IHDA’s departure comes more than a year after the owner of Illinois Center, New York-based AmTrust RE, was hit with a foreclosure lawsuit tied to a $260 million loan secured by the two-building complex. Properties entangled in foreclosure often face limitations on funding tenant improvements or other leasing incentives, as lenders and owners sort out the property’s future, according to the publication.

That uncertainty opened the door for Buffalo-based Aegis Asset Management, which owns Michigan Plaza, a two-tower complex at the northeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Lake Street.

Transwestern’s Mark Buth said in a statement that IHDA was attracted to the building’s amenities, location and stability. Avison Young brokers Jeff Lindenmeyer, Chris O’Leary and Shannon Connerty Morris represented IHDA in the lease, while Buth and Transwestern’s Kathleen Bertrand and Steve Hennessy represented Aegis.

IHDA administers financing and tax credit programs for affordable housing developers and offers low-interest mortgage programs for homebuyers, according to the outlet. The agency operates with an annual budget of more than $89 million.

Spokesperson Andrew Field said the agency selected Michigan Plaza after a procurement process to evaluate new office space for its Chicago workforce and expects to begin its move in about October.

The lease helps backfill some of the vacancies Michigan Plaza has absorbed in recent years. In 2022, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association signed a deal to relocate more than 200,000 square feet from the complex to the nearby Aon Center. The American Planning Association later vacated roughly 21,000 square feet, and Architecture and engineering firm CannonDesign renewed its lease in 2024, but downsized by about 20,000 square feet.

Currently, the building is roughly 70 percent leased, according to CoStar data. Its largest tenant, Omnicom Group, holds a lease for more than 222,000 square feet through 2028, though the marketing giant has listed more than 170,000 square feet of that space for sublease.

— Eric Weilbacher