Beacon Capital, MetLife Attract Tenant After Salesforce Exit

Diana Rauner is moving her Chicago-based nonprofit to a more modern Loop office with views of Lake Michigan and Millennium Park.

Start Early, a childhood education-focused nonprofit, has inked a 15-year lease for 38,500 square feet on the seventh floor of 1 North Dearborn Street, Crain’s reported. The headquarters will be located on the seventh floor of the 17-story building, according to Colliers’ Ryan Barr, who facilitated the lease negotiations on behalf of Start Early.

The space became available in the 938,300-square foot building after an affiliate of Salesforce exercised an option to terminate its lease last summer, according to Telos Group’s Jack O’Brien, who represented the building’s owners, Beacon Capital Partners and MetLife, in the deal.

The building was acquired by Beacon Capital Partners in 2015 for $203 million ($216 per square foot), and underwent extensive renovations in the following years.

In 2018, Beacon, headed by president and CEO Fred Seigel, sold a 50 percent stake in the property to MetLife, valuing it at $266 million, or $283 per square foot.

Finding a tenant for the building, now about 92 percent leased, took only a few months despite the downtown office vacancy rate hitting a high of 26.3 percent in the fourth quarter, O’Brien said.

Office tenants across downtown have been securing high-quality spaces to attract employees back to physical workplaces. Start Early’s upcoming relocation follows this pattern.

It also comes after the nonprofit opted to end its lease for over 45,000 square feet at 33 West Monroe Street, leaving a vacancy in the 28-story tower, owned by AmTrust RE. The building, which is currently 51 percent leased, is the latest in AmTrust’s Chicago portfolio to see tenant turnover.

Although the company’s Jonathan Bennett has announced plans for major renovations across its local office holdings, including a $50 million investment in updates at 1 East Wacker Drive and 33 North Dearborn Street, its timeline for improvements at 33 West Monroe is unclear.

— Andrew Terrell