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Agribusiness company Olam International signs 15 year lease at Marshall Field building

Loop Chicago

Posted  17 months ago  in  Trending, Investments in the Loop, Economy

3 MIN READ – The historic Marshall Field building on State Street in the Loop has secured a new 15-year tenant in agribusiness giant Olam International. This new 15-year lease comes with a major upgrade in office space for Olam International, doubling the square footage of their current Loop office at 200 W. Jackson Blvd.

Danny Ecker described the company’s big downtown office upgrade in the following excerpt from Crain’s Chicago Business:

"One of the world's largest food ingredient suppliers has leased a big new office at the redeveloped Marshall Field building in the Loop, a deal that more than doubles its workspace downtown and bucks the trend of space-shedding that is ailing the city's office sector.

Olam International has inked a 15-year lease for nearly 80,000 square feet at 24 E. Washington St., according to people familiar with the deal. The Singapore-based company becomes the largest tenant to date signed at the landmark property, dramatically expanding from the roughly 35,000 square feet it occupies today and is expected to leave behind at 200 W. Jackson Blvd.

Photo Courtesy of Lamar Johnson Collaborative.

It's unclear what prompted the need for office space and whether Olam will relocate any of its local workforce to the city from the suburbs, where it has a small office in Willowbrook and a 182,875-square-foot cocoa processing facility in Bolingbrook. An Olam spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

But the dramatic downtown office expansion suggests the company may be boosting its headcount in Chicago. The lease stands out as a rare commitment to more office space at a time when many companies are shrinking their office footprints and embracing the remote work movement.



Read the full Crain's Chicago Business article here. 

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