Amalgamated Bank Making a Move in Chicago

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

Robert Wrobel, Amalgated Bank

Several months after selling its longtime headquarters on South State Street in Chicago, Amalgamated Bank of Chicago is moving into its new leased space in the city’s Financial District, choosing convenience and location over owning property.

The bank will open its newly built-out headquarters next Tuesday at 30 N. LaSalle St., where it has signed a long-term lease with the building’s owner AmTrust Realty Corp. Amalgamated Bank will have a retail banking center on the ground floor and its corporate offices on the 37^th and 38^th  floors, a total of approximately 60,000 square feet.

In late March, the bank sold its headquarters at 100-112 S. State St. for $35 million to a joint venture of Tishman Realty Corp. and AXA Real Estate that is planning to reposition it for premier  retail uses. The two-building property had about 80,600 square feet and the bank used most of it except for a 4,600-square-foot Men’s Wearhouse store at 112 S. State St.

30 N. LaSalle St., Chicago

The new space, located in the city’s Financial District, offers the bank modern facilities. The previous building, located at State and Monroe streets in the heart of the Chicago Loop, dated back to the early 1900s.

“While it is less square footage than our old building, it will be a much more efficient use of space,” bank Chairman & CEO Robert Wrobel told Commercial Property Executive.

The bank, which is moving about 185 employees to the new building, is not planning to downsize its staff. It will also continue to operate its Warrenville, Ill., office.

Wrobel said the bank, a full-service commercial and consumer banking institution founded in 1922 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, did consider buying another building in the city.

“We explored both leasing and purchase options, and in the end we felt that our new home had to be convenient for our employees and customers. If we had decided to purchase new space, we would not be located in the Financial District, which we felt was important,” Wrobel told CPE. “Leasing will not change how the bank operates, other than providing even better service to current and new customers.”

Wrobel said the new space will be “more open and efficient” and allow better communications between departments.

Cushman & Wakefield represented Amalgamated Bank both in the sale of the South State Street property and the lease at 30 N. LaSalle.