CHICAGO—The West Loop office market has gotten a lot of attention recently, partly due to the recent decisions of Google, McDonald's and many others to settle in the rising neighborhood. But a top official of a company that pioneered the creation of River North, perhaps Chicago's first trendy office market outside the Central Loop, tells GlobeSt.com that all the leasing activity in the west has not had an adverse impact on its home base.

“The West Loop is obviously the new hot area in town, and I think that's a good thing,” says Jo Anne Gottfried, Urban Innovations' new chief operating officer. As reported in GlobeSt.com, she has been with the company since 1987, and during that time the company renovated a group of historic loft buildings in River North into creative office space, sparking the transformation of what had been a rather dreary area. “The fact that the West Loop has risen does not mean that River North has fallen.”

“There is still a strong market for the loft product,” she adds. In fact, the rise of the West Loop is yet another sign of that, as many tenants look for space in that market when they find out just how tight things are in River North. “Our occupancy is in the upper-90s and has been consistent for a long time.”

Urban Innovations still owns and operates nine buildings in River North, and many tenants have been with them since the beginning. “They tend to grow with us and stay with us,” says Gottfried, and with nine buildings, the company has many options for tenants whose space needs change. “Our methods have stood the test of time. Whenever we started a new project, we'd go in and do a total gut rehab,” and make sure each new property had amenities and features other landlords did not consider necessary. The inclusion of roof decks, for example, put Urban Innovations on the cutting edge. “It might be new to everyone else, but we've had them for 30 years.”

According to Colliers International, River North “projects to remain the strongest submarket in the CBD through 2016 as space remains extremely limited despite having the highest rents in the city.” The vacancy rate sank 100 bps in the second quarter and now stands at just 6.5%, by far the lowest in the CBD. Furthermore, “River North remains the marquee destination for corporate firms relocating from the suburbs.”

Instant Insights /

River North Remains Marquee Destination

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