William Blair, which has been located at 222 W. Adams St. since1994, has signed a letter of intent to lease 325,000 sf of the1.1-million-sf structure. The firm will occupy three low-risefloors and 10 high-rise floors. Van Schaack could not disclose theterm for the lease, except to say it is a "long-term" lease since acontract has not been signed with the firm yet. Sources say theasking lease rate is about $50 per sf gross. Staubach Co.represented William Blair in the letter of intent negotiations. Thebuilding will also have approximately 15,000 sf of retail that willbe "amenity retail" serving the office tenants, he says.

Construction on the building is expected to begin late next yearand is expected to be complete in June 2011. The tower was designedby Pickard Chilton Architects, based in New Haven, CT. The buildingwill have curved glass and elliptical 25,000-sf floor plates. Theproject will have a 1.5-acre public park, and a boutique hotel ofbetween 150 to 200 rooms is planned to adjoin the tower.Construction on the hotel would begin the same time as the tower,but the joint venture will not be developing the hotel, Van Schaacksays. "We are offering it for sale to other developers," he says.Representatives from Hines had previously pegged the value of thehotel at about $65 million.

Levy had owned the property for about 20 years when the majorityof the office activity in the West Loop was on the east side of theChicago River, Van Schaack says. About 95% of the buildings alongthe river are office space and Hines believes it is "the highestand best use" for the property, he says. A hotel was proposed forthe development because "hotels are lacking in that area" and thesite to the north of the building is narrow. "The only use iscondos or a hotel because the footprint is so small," he says.William Blair also wanted to see a hotel as an amenity for theirclients, Van Schaack says.