UBS AG Expands at One North Wacker

CHICAGO-UBS AG has signed a lease expansion totaling 156,400 sf at One North Wacker, a 50-story, class A office building now under development. This new deal will bring UBS AG’s total leased space in the 1.7 million-gross-sf building to 452,050 sf comprising 15 floors. As a result of the significant size of the lease, the property will be renamed UBS Tower. Terms of the lease were not disclosed.

Construction of the development began in October 1999 with signed leases representing 15% of the total rentable area. The property is currently 74% pre-leased, 10 months prior to opening. An additional 10% of the space is currently in serious lease negotiations with prospective tenants.

Switzerland-based UBS AG is one of the world’s largest financial services firms. It has a major presence in asset management, investment banking and private banking in the US and abroad. UBS subsidiaries that will move into the new building include UBS Asset Management’s Chicago-area firms: Brinson Partners, O’Connor and Adams Street Partners and the investment banking division, UBS Warburg. Approximately 1,500 employees will work in the tower.Other firms that have already committed to space in the building include Citadel Investment Group LLC; Willis Stein & Partners; PricewaterhouseCoopers LP; and the Options Clearing Corp.

The office tower, designed by the architectural firm of Lohan Associates, offers rectangular floor plates of 28,000 sf to 36,000 sf. State-of-the-art technological standards will be available to tenants as well. Other amenities will include a 200-car underground parking garage; conference center with teleconferencing facilities; fitness area; and landscaped outdoor plaza. Its location, in Chicago’s West Loop, is about one block from access points for two major commuter stations, the Ogilvie Transportation Center (formerly the Northwestern Station) and Union Station. First occupancy is planned for third quarter 2001.

Lend Lease Real Estate Investments and the John Buck Co. are jointly developing the project. Lend Lease’s investment is on behalf of its Value Enhancement Fund III, a $450 million opportunistic investment fund.