Google to take 600K SF at Chicago's Thompson Center

Google will occupy more than 600,000 square feet of the redeveloped Thompson Center in Chicago’s Central Loop, anchoring the overhaul of Helmut Jahn’s postmodern landmark and delivering one of the largest office commitments downtown in years.

The lease covers a majority of the 954,000 square feet of renovated space in the former state government building, which a joint venture of The Prime Group and Capri Investment Group is redeveloping. That leaves about 354,000 square feet for other tenants, with Morningstar in talks for roughly 300,000 square feet, according to Bisnow. The redevelopment is expected to wrap by September, with Google moving in around mid-2027.

Why it matters. Large blocks of tenant demand have been scarce in a Chicago market long weighed down by high vacancy, and a commitment of this size from a marquee company is exactly the kind of deal downtown boosters have waited for. It reinforces a broader shift toward the national office recovery reaching beyond the coasts. The Thompson Center had itself become a symbol of the Loop’s distress after the state sold the aging building, and turning it into a Google-anchored office is the kind of adaptive reuse city leaders have pushed to reverse downtown’s vacancy problem.

The numbers. Google’s 600,000-plus square feet fills most of the renovated building. “In terms of spaces that are 200K SF or bigger, there’s not that many of them out there,” said David Burden, principal and vice chair at Colliers, underscoring how rare a requirement this size has become.

What’s next. The redevelopment finishes this fall, teeing up Google’s mid-2027 occupancy and, if Morningstar signs, near-full lease-up of a building whose vacancy had made it a symbol of the Loop’s struggles.