Billionaire Ken Griffin's Citadel hedge fund is looking to move its Chicago office from its namesake tower to a much smaller space after relocating its headquarters out of the city in 2022, while consulting firm Bain & Co. is eyeing a deal to take over the top five floors of the Citadel Center.
Citadel is in talks to lease about 55,000 square feet on two floors in the 45-story tower at 353 N. Clark St. in River North, according to people familiar with the situation.
That comes as owners of the 37-story Citadel Center at 131 S. Dearborn St. in the Loop business district, led by TPG Angelo Gordon, are negotiating with Bain to take over the top five floors, or about 175,000 square feet.
The move would represent a significant expansion from Bain’s footprint at 190 S. LaSalle St., but the deal would require the Citadel Center’s owners and namesake tenant to agree to a buyout of those floors to clear the way for a direct, long-term lease with Bain. The leases, involving multiple landlords and tenants, are not completed and still could fall apart at a time of historically weak office demand, uncertainty about the economy and other challenges.
Citadel’s move to space along the river would represent a further cutting of ties to Chicago by Griffin, a Florida native who has been both a longtime financial contributor to museums and other Chicago institutions and a vocal critic of the city’s handling of issues such as crime, public education and fiscal policy.
The hedge fund and a separate business, market maker Citadel Securities, announced the move to Miami in June 2022. After once occupying well over 500,000 square feet in the Chicago tower, Citadel now leases a little more than 300,000 square feet while looking to cut back even more significantly in a move, according to people familiar with the situation.
If Citadel’s deal at 353 N. Clark is completed, it would fill the hole left when real estate investment trust Ventas recently moved its headquarters to the nearby tower at 300 N. LaSalle St.
The owner of 353 N. Clark, Chicago-based Heitman, also took on added vacancy when longtime tenant Mesirow, the financial services company that helped develop the tower that opened in 2009, reduced its space in a 10-year lease extension disclosed early last year.
The nearly 1.2 million-square-foot tower is almost 24% vacant, according to CoStar data.
Bain, meanwhile, has been in the market for a much larger Chicago space after last year signing a deal to nearly double the size of its New York office in a relocation to the 22 Vanderbilt tower. That building features a large outdoor deck overlooking Grand Central Terminal.
The approximately 1.65 million-square-foot Citadel Center is more than 23% vacant, according to CoStar data.
TPG Angelo Gordon and Heitman declined to comment. Citadel and Bain did not respond to requests for comment from CoStar News.
If Boston-Bain finalizes its deal at the Citadel Center, it would be one of the largest new leases in downtown Chicago in recent years.
Sargent & Lundy’s approximately 380,000-square-foot deal to move to 77 W. Wacker Drive late last year was the largest new deal since 2021.
For the record
Bain is represented by CBRE broker Todd Lippman. Citadel is represented by JLL broker Matt Carolan. Owners of 131 S. Dearborn are represented by Stream Realty Partners brokers Jack McKinney Jr., Patrick Russo and Katie Hull. Owners of 353 N. Clark are represented by CBRE brokers Seth Tuscher and Mike Kazmierczak.