What You Talkin' 'bout Willis?

Sears Tower to be renamed Willis Tower

March 13, 2009

BY DAVID ROEDER droeder@suntimes.com
Sears Tower is no more, made obsolete by a company with an edifice complex.

The 110-story Chicago giant will be renamed Willis Tower under a leasing deal announced Thursday. The New York-based owners signed a lease with Willis Group Holdings Ltd., an insurance broker, for 140,000 square feet plus the naming rights.

Willis is the third-biggest company in its field, but it's taking on No. 1, Chicago's Aon Corp., in its own backyard. Like Aon, Willis likes to plaster its name on big buildings.

Under Chairman Joseph Plumeri, Willis put its name on a new London office building that opened last July amid pomp featuring the duke of York.

In Chicago, Willis will have bragging rights with its name on the former Sears Tower, the nation's tallest building. Aon, whose founding chairman is the name-conscious Patrick Ryan, attached itself in 2001 to the former Amoco Building, the fifth-tallest building in the United States and No. 2 in Chicago.

While fighting each other for business accounts worldwide, the two companies now have competing architectural symbols in Chicago.

Willis said it will consolidate five Chicago area offices and move 500 employees into the tower. The company said it is paying $14.50 per square foot in rent and that the naming rights come with no additional cost.

But the Sears Tower owners immediately disputed that point. Also, many Chicagoans hit the Internet to criticize the renaming, with some doubting it would take hold in the public's mind. Some of the tower's tenants were mad, too.

The relocation is expected to be done by late summer.

"Having our name associated with Chicago's most iconic structure underscores our commitment to this great city and recognizes Chicago's importance as a major financial hub and international business center," Plumeri said in a press release.

Michael Kazmierczak, who negotiated the lease on behalf of the owners, insisted, "There is significant consideration for the naming rights." Kazmierczak, senior vice president of U.S. Equities Realty, said a renaming won't confuse people or limit the tower's appeal.

"The image of this building is known worldwide," he said. "Like anything else, it will take time for this move to take root."

A tenant at the tower, architect Daniel Coffey, said the renaming "is beyond the pale of stupid" because of Sears Tower's international prestige. "It's awful. No one knows who Willis is, even in Europe,'' said Coffey, principal of Daniel P. Coffey & Associates Ltd. He said he has two years left on his lease and that the renaming could lead him to move.

Since 2004, Sears Tower has been owned by a group led by New York investors Joseph Chetrit, Joseph Moinian and Steve Bederman and including Yisroel Gluck and John Huston of Skokie-based American Landmark Properties Ltd.

Real estate experts wondered why the owners handed naming rights to a tenant that will take only 3.5 percent of the 3.8 million-square-foot building. In 2005, naming rights were on the table in lease talks with computer seller CDW Corp., which was a potentially bigger tenant. CDW wound up at 120 S. Riverside.

For its own naming deal, Aon occupies about 25 percent of its namesake tower. Like Willis, it has no ownership share in the structure.

David Prosperi, a spokesman for Aon, said building names don't matter much, even though his company has spent an undisclosed sum to buy the rights on skyscrapers in Chicago and Los Angeles. "What matters to clients is the quality of services that you provide," he said.

Ryan could not be reached. He has stepped back from activities at Aon while he runs the Chicago 2016 Olympic campaign.

Sears Tower opened in 1973 as the corporate headquarters for Sears, Roebuck and Co., but the company left for Hoffman Estates in 1992. Kim Freely, a spokeswoman for Sears Holdings Corp., said the company never had naming rights after it left the building.

"We're sad to see this," she said, "but we believe the name will have a way of living on, just the way people keeping calling U.S. Cellular Field Comiskey Park."

Willis said it will consolidate offices at 10 S. LaSalle, 1 E. Wacker and 222 N. Riverside, along with locations in Oak Brook and Lombard. Cushman & Wakefield Inc. represented Willis in the leasing talks.

The Sun-Times has reported that the owners are considering another radical change to the tower, recoating it silver. The move could save energy as well as promote other changes the building is making in a bid to win new tenants.

SEARS TOWER FACTS
Rentable space: 3.8 million square feet

Percent vacancy: 15.8

Typical floor size: 34,373 square feet

Quoted rents: $14 to $21 per square foot

No. of tenants: More than 90