Trizec Properties, Inc. expects occupancy at the 110-story tower at 233 S. Wacker Dr. to slide into a range from 85% to 87% in 2003. The effects of Sept. 11, 2001, as well as a soft office rental market that is being felt in the West Loop, were cited as factors in a 9% decline in the asset's appraised value to $826 million.
However, the national law firm is not among those who have become skittish about renting space in a high-profile, Downtown trophy office building. "Sears Tower has been our home for a decade and there is no place I would rather be," says Tressler, Soderstrom, Maloney & Priess managing partner Howard Priess in a statement. "No other building around the Loop compares to Sears Tower's excellent management--especially in terms of the security measures that went beyond expectations--and its prime location."
Although terms were not released, asking net lease rates at Sears Tower range from $16 per sf to $22 per sf, which could put the value of the deal in the neighborhood of $18 million to $24 million.
Trizec Properties, now headquartered in Sears Tower, has a $70-million junior mortgage that allowed the REIT to own the building Jan. 2, while assuming a $779 mortgage held by Metropolitan Life.
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