While former President George H. Bush called the 110-story Sears Tower "a symbol of our nation's strength and vitality" during this week's reopening of the Skydeck observation deck, some of the 10,000 office workers and smaller tenants in the building have considered it a terrorist's bull's eye in the wake of the horrific attacks Sept. 11 on the World Trade Center towers.

Those fears were noted in the Federal Reserve's recent "beige book." "Reports of anxiety among occupants of some of Chicago's trophy office properties became more frequent," after Sept. 11, it noted, perhaps referring to the John Hancock and Aon buildings as well. "According to one contact, 'more than one' tenant of a prominent office tower in the city were looking to leave the building, for fear of losing workers left skittish by the World Trade Center attacks. Some tenants noted that workers in high-rise buildings were less productive because of security distractions."

However, others at the NAIOP conference compared the jitters felt in high-profile, Central Business District trophy office assets to the initial reactions after the 1989 Bay Area earthquake. The Bay Area, specifically Downtown San Francisco, returned to normal in a few years.