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Another firm has set its sights on the Chicago skyline with the announcement of a planned office tower in Chicago.

In a time when vacancy rates are high, rental rates are low, and job growth is minimal, it may seem curious that three separate development firms are now floating office tower plans for downtown Chicago. While many have questioned the viability of a large scale construction project at this time, the latest company to announce its plans hopes to buck that notion, by presenting a smaller-scale project than its potential competitors.

The Alter Group and White Oak Realty Partners have partnered to develop a potential 20-story, 490,000-square-foot office building at 625 West Adam’s Street in the West Loop.  The previous plans that have been announced have been from Trammel Crow Company and John Buck Co., both firms leading with the idea of larger towers, with Trammel Crow’s reported at a potential a 1-million-square-feet.

If it is indeed a race to the next building, Tom Saletta, principal with White Oak Realty Partners, likes his project’s chances.

Saletta says that the flexibility of the site will allow the firm to adapt to fit a potential anchor tenants’ needs, making the firm optimistic that it can achieve the proper preleasing with one fell stroke.

“We have the flexibility to build anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 square feet,” says Saletta. “We are confident that with 60-70 percent of the building preleased, we can get the project financed and off the ground. An 180,000-square-foot anchor tenant would be approximately 60 percent of the building, which may be all we need.”

One of the big draws of the building would be its potential floor plan size, says Saletta.

The property is a 41,000-square-foot rectangular print, with floor plans that can accommodate 31,000 square feet or higher. The plan is to develop more usable square footage, making the space more efficient than many existing buildings. This would allow for some firms to potentially downsize in space, without reducing staff and resources.

“Our large floor plate will be eight-to-ten percent more efficient than other smaller floor plates,” says Saletta. “A 300,000-square-foot user in another building could potentially be a 270,000-square-foot user in our building. This will have a big impact on a tenant’s bottom line over an extended lease term.”

Saletta acknowledged that he and his co-leasing partner, Matt Ward of the Alter Group, have already engaging potential users. He says that growth in the trading market in Chicago has caught his eye, and the floor plates at his proposed building could accommodate a trading floor, yet he has not actively spoken to a trading firm as of yet.

“This project could realistic be up and running in 2013 with an anchor tenant,” says Saletta. “Depending on the building size, the construction process would be anywhere from 18-22 months. There is a sense that the economic uncertainty over the last two years has lessened and tenants can now look more confidently at the future and make decisions.”

Tags | Alter Group, Chicago, development, Office, White Oak Realty Partners

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