Chicago Developer Sterling Bay Downsizes Office Space

Sterling Bay is relocating its headquarters within Chicago’s Fulton Market, the developer’s latest cost-cutting move, instigating a chain reaction of occupancy shakeups, CoStar reports.

The Chicago developer, which played a central role in transforming Fulton Market from a meatpacking district to a corporate hub, is downsizing its HQ from 31,000 square feet at 333 North Green Street to about 25,000 square feet at 939 West Fulton Market, subleasing space from Vital Proteins.

R1 RCM, a Utah-based healthcare revenue management company, is expanding into the space Sterling Bay is exiting at 333 North Green Street. Add to the shuffle Chinese furniture manufacturer Sunon, which is negotiating to sublease R1 RCM’s 13,000 square feet space at 800 West Fulton.

If finalized, Sunon would join other furniture brands in the area, using the space as a showroom.

R1 RCM was represented by JLL’s Andy Strand, Vital Proteins by Colliers’ Dougal Jeppe, and Sunon by JLL’s Sarah Silva and Nicole Becker.

Sterling Bay’s new offices will span the top two floors of a three-story building owned by Asana Partners.

Sterling Bay began to shed its Chicago assets last year, likely to finance its Lincoln Yards project, a multi-billion-dollar mixed-use development on Chicago’s North Side that has failed to attract investment.

The firm has also been selling off some development parcels near Lincoln Yards and within Fulton Market itself.

Sterling Bay developed the 553,000-square-foot building at 333 North Green Street with JPMorgan in 2019, signing a long-term lease to have its offices in the building as part of the deal. The 19-story building is fully leased after nearly 97,000 square feet was leased by Dutch financial technology firm Adyen late last year.

Fulton Market gained Google’s Midwest headquarters as well as McDonald’s, which leased the office building where Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios once stood.

— Judah Duke