The company built the tower in recent years on a constructionloan, and always planned to refinance following the building'scompletion in June, Newman says. "In our normal program and plan wewould have refinanced, and it was really time to get off theconstruction loan and move into more of a regular loan," Newmantells GlobeSt.com. "It's a really tough time refinancing, but wethought the time was right to get a good loan for a longer periodthat helps stabilize the loan. We had some time left on ourconstruction loan, but we didn't want to wait closer to thematurity date of the construction loan because of the instabilityof the market."

Newman says rates are higher than the company originallyexpected when planning for the eventual refinancing, but it wasable to negotiate with ING Real Estate Finance US to what theyconsider a successful refinancing of the mortgage nevertheless. Theoriginal mortgage on the property was issued by Bank ofAmerica.

Morningstar Inc., based here, and CBS Channel 2 Chicago are theanchor tenants in the building, developed by a joint venturebetween Golub & Co. LLC, based here, and New York City-basedBlackRock Realty Advisors Inc. Sterling Business Center Inc. hasalso signed on for about 29,000 sf. There's availability on only acouple of floors in the tower, where asking lease rates are in thehigh-$20s per sf, Newman says.