Construction Begins This Week On 175 W. Jackson Lobby, One of the Largest Office Building Lobbies in Chicago.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 1999--

Lobby revitalization is part of $75 million renovation of

Insurance Exchange building

Construction begins this week on one of the city's largest office building lobbies. The work marks the start of a full-scale renovation of 175 West Jackson Boulevard, known as the Insurance Exchange building. The 175 W. Jackson Partnership, owner and manager of the 1.5 million-square-foot office property, has teamed with Chicago architect Lucien Lagrange to update the 87-year-old building to meet 21st century business needs, as well as to respond to continually falling vacancy rates in Chicago's central business district.

To accommodate the revitalization of the Jackson Blvd. lobby, it will be temporarily closed. The building's daily foot traffic of about 7,000 pedestrians and tenants will have access to the Van Buren Street lobby and corresponding elevators. (The 21-story property encompasses an entire city block in the West Loop's Financial District and offers a 68,000-square-foot floor plate.)

When construction is completed on the Jackson Boulevard lobby, it will be reopened and, in turn, the Van Buren Street lobby will be closed.

The Jackson Blvd. grand entrance will feature an elegant glass canopy, new windows and lighting that will be reflected by the glass and marble columns. The ground floor will have two light courts and one of the atria will feature a dramatic, 50-foot skylight supported by sculptured columns. The courtyard, projected to house a cafe with tables, will be surrounded by retail space to create a "cityscape." The south entrance on Van Buren Street will receive similar beautification.

Through Lagrange's unique design, the new lobbies will bring natural light into the building during the day and spill bright lights on to the streets at night--a concept Lagrange successfully applied to the recently renovated Bank of Boston.

Vacancy rates in the West Loop have been falling and are now less than five percent. Not only is the partnership responding to the demand for office space in this submarket, it will offer rental rates considerably lower than those for other class A buildings, according to Menahem Deitcher, director of leasing for the property. "We realize we can't give companies a 50-story view, but we can keep the rents low and still offer a striking working environment with first-class amenities," he added.

Other news

By October, the partnership will have completed a monumental effort to clean more than 50 years of accumulation from the terra cotta exterior of the building. The cleaning process is uncovering the original color and texture of the building's facade, giving it a dramatically bright appearance. The cleaning project began last year; a cleaning crew has been scrubbing the building inch by inch nightly from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. On completion, the crew will have cleaned thousands of feet of terra cotta, a favorite building material of Daniel Burnham, one of the building's original architects.

Meanwhile, Deitcher is in negotiations with several companies in Chicago who are in the market for space. The first leases will be finalized and announced by the end of this year, with the first tenants moving in during first quarter 2000. To date, half of the building's floors have been prepared for rehabbing by contractor Walsh Construction.

About the building and renovation

The Insurance Exchange building is the sixth largest office property in Chicago; the renovation itself is currently the largest underway in the city, and possibly the Midwest. Once home to more insurance companies than any other building in the world, 175 W. Jackson was built in two phases, the first designed and completed by Burnham in 1912, the second by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in 1928.

The building is owned and managed by the 175 W. Jackson Partnership, which includes New York-based Intell Management & Investment Company. Intell serves as asset manager and substantial owner of a portfolio that exceeds seven million square feet, including a $160-million hotel/restaurant project under construction in New York's Times Square and a 600,000-square-foot residential/retail property on Manhattan's Upper West Side, along with many other New York monuments.

For more information on the property, contact Deitcher at 312.781.2500.