Cisco Still Moving Into The Old Post Office

One of the biggest questions from the pandemic is the impact on work.  A big tennant at The Old Post Office looks like they're still moving forward with their plans to relocate (via Chicago Tribune):

Technology firm Cisco Systems announced this week it’s moving its regional offices in Rosemont to downtown Chicago where the city will serve as the company’s Midwest “hub,” officials tell the Tribune.

The San Francisco-based IT giant has had a plan in the works for years now to consolidate city and suburban offices in Chicago’s redeveloped Old Post Office at 433 W. Van Buren St., along the Chicago River, which will now be home to the hub.

Jobs span across sales, sales engineering, services, collaboration and operations roles, according to a Cisco spokesman. The Tribune reported in 2019 that Cisco was negotiating rent on 130,000 square feet of office space in the long-vacant old post office. The new Cisco space can accommodate 1,200 employees. The company sees the Chicago office, a micro-headquarters of sorts, as a “space where teams can come together under a hybrid work model, while showcasing how our technology can power a more hybrid way of working for our teams, customers, and partners,” the Cisco spokesman said.

The announcement comes at a time when downtown Chicago is trying to get back on its feet amid a pandemic that at one point turned the Loop and environs into a ghost town. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has previously said the pandemic didn’t stop businesses from moving into Chicago; in all 32 businesses have set up shop since the COVID-19 outbreak took hold here, she has said.

Ironically, beyond this we also had a meeting recently (not about Sloopin) with a small startup media company that was looking at space at The Old Post Office.  Curious to see how the commercial real estate market evolves post pandemic.