A law office’s planned relocate to a 50-story Loop workplace tower continues an industry pattern of decreased office sizes.
Arnstein & Lehr prepares to move next year to about 65,000 square feet at 161 N. Clark St., said Managing Partner Michael Gesas. Arnstein & Lehr currently rents about 100,000 square feet at 120 S. Riverside Plaza in the West Loop, the company’s house because 1990, Gesas said.
The majority of the space Arnstein is taking at 161 N. Clark will be subleased from Polsinelli. That law practice plans to move in February to a 53-story office tower in the late phases of construction at 150 N. Riverside Plaza along the Chicago River.
Arnstein & Lehr is following a law industry trend of cutting costs by reducing property. Lots of companies are moving toward smaller specific offices and getting rid of libraries and records that can now be saved digitally.
” We decided to make the move since we’re in area that, for the purposes of our firm, is antiquated,” Gesas stated. “The plus is we will not have the oversized equity partner firms that we have here (at 120 S. Riverside).
” My firm is like a castle. It’s ludicrous.”
About 60,000 square feet will be subleased from Polsinelli on the 42nd, 43rd and 46th floorings. Arnstein & Lehr likewise will lease about 5,000 square feet straight from the proprietor on the 13th floor for the firm’s administrative workplaces, Gesas stated.
161 N. Clark is owned by an endeavor of CBRE Global Investors, which bought it in on behalf of a group of South Korean investors for about $331.3 million in October 2013. The tower has to do with 96 percent leased, according to real estate data supplier CoStar Group.
The Polsinelli lease that Arnstein & Lehr is presuming runs till October 2027, Gesas said.
Arnstein & Lehr was represented in the offer by Expense Rogers, a managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle.
Polsinelli is among a number of firms moving their Chicago offices to smaller areas in towers now under construction. Others include McDermott Will & Emery, DLA Piper and Hinshaw & Culbertson.
Other companies are switching from one existing building to another to redesign their workplaces in less total area, such as Seyfarth Shaw’s thing to move to Willis Tower from the Citadel.
Total downtown office job reached a 15-year low throughout the 2nd quarter, however pending moves by renters from existing structures to brand-new building are anticipated to drive up openings in the next couple of years.
Founded in 1893, Arnstein & Lehr has about 90 legal representatives in the Chicago office and about 60 in Florida, where it has offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Boca Raton, Gesas said. The company likewise has a little Springfield workplace that its Chicago legal representatives use when taking a trip to the state capital.
Arnstein & Lehr prepares to complete the move from the West Loop by next April, Gesas said.
Aside from some minor cosmetic changes such as brand-new carpet and paint, the Polsinelli space is furnished and move-in all set, Gesas said. Workplaces are 225 square feet for partners and 150 for associates.
Its existing space has partner offices from 235 to 310 square feet and associate firms of 150 feet, the firm said. In spite of the total decrease in space, the brand-new workplace consists of room for brand-new hires, Gesas said.
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