When Walgreens moves 1,800 corporate workers into Chicago’s old main post office next fall, it will end more than two decades of vacancy for the sprawling building that straddles Congress Parkway.
Building owner 601W Cos. is confident the wait will be much shorter for additional office leases in the 2.8 million-square-foot building at 433 W.
Deerfield-based Walgreens Boots Alliance’s lease of about 200,000 square feet may be as important symbolically as it is financially for the ongoing $800 million-plus redevelopment of the building into modern offices. Although the lease will fill only about 7 percent of the riverfront property, having a large, well-known corporation in hand could give the building a stamp of approval in the eyes of other prospective tenants.
“We have a very deep pipeline of interested tenants but someone had to be the first,” said Brian Whiting, founder and president of the Telos Group, which is representing 601W in leasing the building.
