Commercial office properties have always had to contend for tenants as a part of doing business, but increasingly, existing buildings are facing stiffer competition from new office properties offering integrated amenities packages that go way beyond the lobby coffee shop. As a new generation of employees enters the workforce, employers are challenged to secure leases that provide more than simple office space, instead offering an attractive combination of recreation, retail, and relaxation options that feel more akin to a resort than a workplace. In the case of Prudential Plaza, a 41-story structure in Chicago built in 1955, the challenge for building owners was to offer new value in a building originally designed to respond to a workforce that no longer exists.
Investing more than $85 million into building renovations, Prudential Plaza’s owners envisioned a top-to-bottom rehabilitation, crowned by a 13,000 square-foot amenities deck on the 11th floor. The roof top transformation is highlighted by a fully-wired amphitheater, fire pit lounge and a small lawn accompanied by a new 12,000 square-foot fitness center and a 7,000 square-foot clubhouse. All of which are exclusively for building tenants and their employees. Kyle Kamin, a CBRE Inc. executive vice president and tenant broker who has clients in Prudential Plaza called the roof deck “a game-changer with an unbeatable view.”