27,000 SF is a corner office at OPO. :yes:

At 2.8 Million sq feet across 14 floors, you're talking roughly 200,000 sq. feet (or a building the size of 145 S. Wells) per floor. Hard to believe half that space is already spoken for.

You can see where they cut out a section of the 2nd floor slab to make the giant atrium in this video at 0:48.

https://vimeo.com/269231549


There's some quick pans of renders in that area here as well:
https://vimeo.com/287470483

^They've even knocked the logo out of the park!

Can't wait for that Meadow

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...in-post-office

Shocked no one has posted this

Just needed the Baby Boomers to finally retire and the first wave of Millennials to take their place as decision-makers, and we get some very urban, creative development. :)

Cboe nears deal to move HQ to Old Main Post Office

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...in-post-office

I do love that Gen Xers always are forgotten about. But yes, Millennials are now well into their 30s, so it's only a matter of time before the old guard's ways are altered

Damn....that 2nd video....Damn

Not to sidetrack the thread, but 85 really doesn’t feel like Gen X has had such a significant impact culturally or otherwise as the generations before or after them. Maybe it’s every other generation that does.

And thinking about it, I’m a Millennial (technically), or an “old Millennial” in my 30s, and my parents are Boomers. Generation X was quite literally skipped over, as a function of my father being an older dad. If I had kids I’d be an older dad as well and there would be no Generation Z.

Gen X is who paved the way for the current iteration of the revival of cities

You guys are enjoying the fruits of our labor. Cities were much more rough around the edges in the 90s when our generation was starting to live in them.

It's amazing how quickly this is leasing up for a 2.5mil ft2 building. The updated estimated cost for rehabbing the OPO is up to $900 MILLION! I'm really glad this masterpiece is getting a new life and businesses are flocking to it, but for that price, someone could build a 1000ft+ office tower in the West Loop near Union Station. I know people have been saying that Chicago will never see a supertall office tower again, but the HQ relocations and Chicago's western shifting CBD might say otherwise in the future.

Thoughts?

Wow, this is going to be another whole Merchandise Mart on the river full of workers when it opens! It's really going to energize this section of the southwest loop! The area south of it reminds me of the west loop in 2006 with sleepy low slung industrial buildings and surface lots. Maybe it will start a boom in that area soon. It looks amazing, I would love to work here.

Sorry if someone answered before, but is the roof garden going to be open to the public?

I think it depends on how fast the west loop fills up and whether the city will expand zoning for office buildings beyond the west loop. If commercial building is restricted to the current areas I can see a boom of supertalls in the next cycle or two.

The Post Office is already a block away from Union Station, it couldn't be more closer unless it was on top of it.
I think the initial idea was that it was going to cost $600 million for the renovation. Where did they say it's $900 million now? I think this is still alot cheaper than building a new construction supertall office building of that size. After this fills up, I think there would be alot more construction in the area a few years later if the economy is still doing ok.

There is still quite a bit of room in the west loop between the Kennedy and the river for 50ish floor office towers with 1M-1.5M square feet plus. I sincerely doubt new office supertalls are going to be realistic anytime soon.

They never will be. This isn't Manhattan, we don't have the land constraints to justify office supertalls on purely financial grounds; they're too inefficient. We have 4 office supertalls in Chicago. At least two of those supertalls were built as corporate vanity projects (for Sears and Standard Oil). All four were built in a different era when budgets allowed far more lavish buildings and tenants were willing to pay a premium to be in one of the tallest buildings.

Today, tenants are paying a premium to be in Fulton Market; they couldn't care less how tall their building is, so developers put up midrises that are super efficient and relatively inexpensive to build. There's also a steady stream of new buildings along Wacker and the South Branch for successful, more conservative companies (law firms, banks, etc) - these are taller because the land is more expensive, but still top out in the 700-800' sweet spot.

If we did get another only office supertall, it would be one via technicality with a spire like the last two

By "anytime soon" I really mean basically within my likely lifetime. I always hesitate to say never but even in NYC 900-1000 footer office buildings are very much the exception and not the rule. Another era of big corporate vanity towers could come again but I don't see any signs of it right now.

Fulton Market tenants want footage in that neighborhood and want it fast. You are correct that tall doesn't really enter into the calculus. I'm totally fine with a nice midrise office district that gives over to nightlife/hospitality after work and on the weekend with a smattering of for-rent residential.

I am curious to see if the strong leasing at OPO will influence the city to revisit the DS zoning to the south in the near-ish future.