Tall & Urban News

The development team behind the new Bank of America Tower going up at 110 N. Wacker Drive today announced a 58,000-square-foot (5,388-square-meter) lease with No18, a high-end shared office provider that will debut on two of the tower’s three penthouse floors when the 55-story building opens late next year.

The luxury co-working brand, which launched its first US location last year in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, is a “cosmopolitan members club for professionals,” according to a statement from Chicago-based Riverside Investment & Development and Dallas-based Howard Hughes, the developers building the 1.4 million-square-foot (130,000 square-meter) riverfront tower.

No18 is a sister company to shared office provider Regus and co-working brand Spaces, which are owned by Switzerland-based International Workplace Group. Co-working has spread quickly downtown as companies have demonstrated an appetite for flexible workspace they can lease month to month, and No18 is framed as a “premium” version that caters to upscale users.

“No18 workspaces are held to the highest standards by each and every guest who walks through our doors,” IWG Vice President of Network Development Michael Berretta said in the statement. “Undoubtedly, our lease with 110 North Wacker Drive is going to raise that bar even higher.”

The deal adds to a tenant roster at 110 N. Wacker that is anchored by Bank of America’s 530,000-square-foot (49,238 square-meter) lease, and also includes a 60,000-square-foot (5,574-square-meter) lease with Chicago-based mergers-and-acquisitions adviser Lincoln International. The building will be the tallest new office tower in the city since the 61-story Two Prudential Plaza tower opened in 1990.

No18’s space will include a “double-height atrium” and outdoor terraces atop the tower, which is under construction on the site of the former GGP headquarters building.

“It is important to differentiate ourselves with a luxury offering befitting the location, architecture, views, technology and amenities of 110 North Wacker Drive,” Paul Layne, Howard Hughes’ president of the central region, said in a statement. “Not only does No18 provide an efficient solution for our tenants’ flex space needs, its elevated design and one-of-a-kind workspaces is a fitting match, providing the building with yet another dynamic amenity with its cosmopolitan social club.”

The good news for the rest of the downtown office market is that the lease brings a new office user to the city as opposed to pilfering a tenant from another building. Other new office towers that have opened over the past couple of years downtown have drawn several tenants away from older downtown properties, and there is a lot more new space on the way. A new 1.5 million-square-foot tower planned next to Union Station will pull BMO Harris Bank out of its Loop office locations when it opens in 2022.

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