With the interiors complete, developer Sterling Bay’s newest 25-story office tower in Fulton Market is set to open this fall — welcoming anchor tenant Boston Consulting Group.
The building, 360 N. Green St., is Sterling Bay’s tallest office tower yet in Fulton Market and 90% leased. The neighborhood has seen a surge of new and relocating businesses and hundreds of new apartment units are slated to open in the next few years.
Chicago’s office market, as a whole, is slowly seeing increased activity. Availability rates across downtown Chicago dropped from their historic high of 29.6% at the start of 2024 to 29.1% in the second quarter, according to Colliers. Fulton Market has been one of the bright spots — its vacancy rate is the second-lowest across the city’s submarkets, behind the North Michigan Avenue submarket.
Chicago-based Sterling Bay started designing 360 N. Green during the pandemic. As office buildings sat empty and underutilized, the developer knew its target: sophisticated tenants like mega-anchor Boston Consulting Group. The management consultancy firm signed a 15-year lease for 250,000 square feet, or about half of the building.
“Fulton Market has obviously become the area to be,” Steph Smothers, Sterling Bay’s vice president of design, said. “It’s very hot. Everybody wants to be there. But the challenge was finding the right balance that would appeal to just a little bit more of a sophisticated service-type tenant.”
Smothers said the developer has “absolutely” attracted its target tenants. In addition to Boston Consulting Group, law firm Greenberg Traurig is leasing space at the building — the first law firm in Fulton Market, according to Sterling Bay. Investment firm Readystate Asset Management is also leasing half a floor at the building.
Sterling Bay partnered with architecture firm Gensler to design the building’s interiors. The teams drew from Gensler’s workplace data and the needs of professional services firms to drive the design.
Two of the biggest trends Gensler saw in office design was a focus on multi-generational spaces and cross-pollination, according to Lori Mukoyama, principal and global hospitality leader at Gensler.
Employees are looking for more ways to collaborate and learn from each other — especially younger employees, who want to live closer to their workplaces.
“We wanted to reinterpret the amenities and even the lobby area so that it’s not typical,” Mukoyama said.
The typical office lobby can feel “austere” and uncomfortable, she said, and the 360 N. Green lobby was designed to be the opposite. Different soft seating areas are intended to be open for conversation, like a hotel lobby and lounge.
The finished interior work also included the building’s conference rooms and amenity floors, located on level four and five. Among the amenities are a state-of-the-art fitness center and 5,000-square-foot roof deck with fire pits.
The building also includes one of Sterling Bay’s signature amenities: a secret room with duckpin bowling and a bar to give off a speakeasy-feel. Sterling Bay has offered secret rooms across its portfolio of properties, but they’ve never included duckpin bowling.
The amenity is representative of why companies are moving to Fulton Market, Mukoyama said. They’re tired of the “tried and true” office. Now, the draw is expanding beyond the typical tech companies that have dominated growth in the neighborhood.
“In that room, we really did want to change your mentality,” Mukoyama said. “The heavy drapes, the deeper wood — it still harkens to a very professional service vibe but done in a much more modern way.”