Ripple Eyes River North Office Lease in Chicago

A fast-growing blockchain firm is poised to settle into downtown Chicago, offering a rare bright spot for an office market still struggling to regain its footing.

San Francisco-based Ripple is in advanced talks to lease more than 50,000 square feet at 300 North LaSalle Street, according to sources familiar with the deal first reported by Crain’s. The move comes about six months after the company acquired Buffalo Grove, Illinois-based software firm GTreasury for $1 billion.

The pending lease would rank among the few examples of organic office demand downtown at a time when contraction has defined the market. Tenants have shed nearly 3 million square feet of space in Chicago’s central business district since 2020, according to CBRE. That loss dwarfs the pullback seen during the Great Recession.

New entrants such as Ripple have become increasingly important, as landlords grapple with record-high vacancy and dwindling daily foot traffic. Whether the company consolidates GTreasury’s existing 23,000-square-foot office in Buffalo Grove into the new River North outpost remains unclear. That suburban lease runs through 2028, according to CoStar data.

Ripple’s prospective new home has quietly emerged as one of downtown’s more active leasing stories. The 60-story, 1.3 million-square-foot tower has undergone a $37 million repositioning led by its owner, Newport Beach, California-based Irvine Company. According to the publication, recent renovations include a revamped lobby and a new indoor-outdoor terrace tied to the Chicago Riverwalk.

Those upgrades have helped backfill a massive block of space vacated by Kirkland & Ellis and Boston Consulting Group, both of which decamped for newer buildings, according to the outlet. The property is now about 70 percent leased, with recent deals from law firms Winston & Strawn, White & Case, Crowell & Moring and Arnold & Porter, along with real estate investment trust Ventas.

Ripple, which develops blockchain-based payment infrastructure for financial institutions, has been in a growth mode. The firm raised $500 million last year at a $40 billion valuation and has been on an acquisition spree to expand its business.— Eric Weilbacher