News: Ungaretti & Harris Represents Landlord in Chicago’s Largest New 2009 Office Lease

Chicago, January 5, 2010 – Ungaretti & Harris LLP represented Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) in leasing 230,000 square feet of space in its downtown Chicago headquarters to Baker & McKenzie LLP, a global Chicago-based law firm. The transaction is the largest entirely new downtown office lease and one of the largest overall downtown office leases of the year.

HCSC recently completed a 24-story expansion to the building, located at 300 East Randolph. Baker & McKenzie will lease approximately 7.5 floors in the expansion as part of a 16-year agreement. The lease will begin December 1, 2012.

“We were pleased to assist HCSC in successfully completing this transaction in a challenging real estate market with a high downtown office vacancy rate,” says Ungaretti & Harris Real Estate Partner Kris E. Curran, who represented HCSC.

HCSC, parent company of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, is the country's largest customer-owned health insurer and fourth largest health insurer overall.