FOR LET: 36,000 square-foot cave in central Chicago. Three-story ceilings, cutting-edge fiber optic feeds, historic art deco setting. Ten pits available, perfect for lounging. Jackets not included.
When CME Group Inc.'s futures pits in the cavernous trading floor at the Chicago Board of Trade fall quiet next month, real estate broker Holly Duran will be working overtime to find a tenant to occupy a storied piece of U.S. financial history.
Prospective candidates could include big trading companies like BP PLC, whose hundreds of Chicago-based traders now occupy another former CME trading floor two blocks away, or tech firms. In Minneapolis, the tech incubator CoCo revitalized the former trading floor of the Grain Exchange.
"There's not a lot of high-ceiling unique office space in Chicago," said Duran, who has advised CME Group on its property holdings since 1980.
After more than eight decades of open-outcry grain futures trading at the landmark Chicago Board of Trade Building, trading ended July 6 at the art deco masterpiece that came to be seen as a symbol of turbulent capitalism reshaping the world.
The vast space once filled with thousands of arm-waving, hoarse-voiced traders, runners and clerks will be home to as-yet unknown new inhabitants lured, perhaps, by a superfast, sophisticated telecommunications network, or the retro charm of 10 octagonal pits where trading was conducted.
At an asking price of $30 a year per square foot, the 36,000 square-foot exchange floor — plus overhanging viewing galleries with another 15,000 square feet, and 27,000 square feet of related space on the upper floor — could go for more than $2 million a year.
"Depending on the user, the space may warrant a premium," said Duran. If a business needs more space, there is another 100,000 square feet or more available in the building. Financial services, social media, the start-up world, advertising or the financial-technology industry are all potential clients, she said.