Developers have begun the long-awaited transformation of the James R. Thompson Center into a high-tech home for Google, a move heralded by state and city officials as a new beginning for downtown Chicago, which is still struggling with empty offices and storefronts.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at a Monday news conference that Google’s arrival could bring some magic back to the Central Loop.
“Google is one of Chicago’s great corporate citizens, and we are so proud to see it become a central feature of downtown Chicago,” Pritzker said. “This is an incredible investment in (Google’s) future, and ours.”
Prime/Capri Interests, a venture led by Chicago developers Michael Reschke and Quintin Primo, bought the Helmut Jahn-designed Thompson Center in 2022 from the state of Illinois for $105 million and made plans to preserve the aging building instead of demolishing it. Google agreed to take over the building at 100 W. Randolph St. after the duo completes the renovation.
“It’s basically going to be rebuilt and be a new building,” Reschke said. “It’s so exciting to see a company like Google use its presence as a force for good.”
Loop landlords and business owners, many still hurting from the rise of remote work, have high hopes other companies will flock to the Loop in Google’s wake. The internet giant helped transform Fulton Market, a former industrial area in the West Loop, into a neighborhood of upscale residences and office towers after it took over a former cold storage building there in 2015.
Downtown’s vacancy rate hit nearly 24% earlier this year, a historic high, according to Colliers.
Crews will replace the Thompson Center’s existing glass facade with triple-paned glass, which will let in more natural light and cut energy use for the 1.2 million-square-foot structure, first completed in 1985. An outdated heating and cooling system, which sometimes made state employees sweat on hot summer days, will also be replaced. And workers at other Loop offices, tourists and visitors will get to enjoy a new public plaza with trees and space for food and beverage retailers.
“We didn’t want this to be just a Google asset,” said Karen Sauder, Google’s Chicago site lead. “With the Thompson Center, we saw the chance to revitalize the Loop. We think our employees will enjoy it too.”
The renovated building will be all electric, she added. The company hopes to secure LEED Platinum, the highest sustainability rating given by the world’s most popular green building certification program.
The Clark/Lake CTA station remains open as developers and government officials celebrated the start of renovations on the Thompson Center on May 6, 2024. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
The Thompson Center’s train station at 100 W. Lake St., where six Chicago Transit Authority lines converge, will remain open throughout construction.
Google wasn’t just attracted to downtown Chicago by the Thompson Center’s soaring atrium, Sauder said. The city’s tech sector accounts for 18% of the workforce, a deep pool of labor that will help the company staff up its new Midwest home.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said the renovation sends a message to other tech companies looking to expand or relocate.
“Google’s makeover of the Thompson Center truly affirms what we know about Chicago, that Chicago is a globally connected, world-class hub,” he said.
Google could also boost the city’s plan, started under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and continued by Johnson, to transform a collection of antiquated office buildings on and near LaSalle Street into a new residential neighborhood with more than 1,000 apartments, said Chicago Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright.
Reschke and Primo are tackling the largest portion of the $520 million LaSalle residential project. They plan to transform 111 W. Monroe St., a 1911 skyscraper, by adding 345 apartments, including 105 affordable units.
But Google’s new hub will be the neighborhood’s centerpiece, Primo said.
“We are truly adding new sinew and muscle to the Thompson Center,” he said. “It’s a stunning new lease on life.”
