President Donald Trump’s real estate firm has hired new brokers to bring retailers to the base of his namesake hotel and residential skyscraper along the Chicago River, a high-profile leasing assignment that for 16 years has proved to be one of the most challenging in the nation’s third-largest city.
The Trump Organization has hired Newmark brokers to seek tenants for about 70,000 square feet of never-used retail space on the Riverwalk and mezzanine levels of Trump International Hotel & Tower, according to the brokerage.
The skyscraper at 401 N. Wabash Ave. is Chicago’s second-tallest building at 1,389 feet, trailing only Willis Tower — formerly Sears Tower — at 1,451 feet. It is the tallest building ever developed by Trump.
Brokers from RKF, A-R-C Real Estate Group and Cushman & Wakefield previously have overseen retail leasing at the property that opened in 2009, without success despite the prominent location overlooking the river and the Magnificent Mile shopping district just a short walk away.
Trump is renewing efforts to fill the space by hiring a team of Newmark brokers based in Chicago, New York and London, casting a wide net for potential tenants. Chicago-based brokers James Schutter and Larry Kling previously landed tenants Ghirardelli, Walgreens and Peet’s Coffee at the neighboring Wrigley Building.
“The space really hasn’t been marketed since COVID, and the river has activated so much more in that time,” Schutter said of the Trump retail. “The vibrancy is there, and we’re right in the middle of the activity.”
CoStar News reached out to The Trump Organization for additional comment but didn’t hear back.
Open to building modifications
Newmark brokers point to the success of longtime restaurants along the river such as Smith & Wollensky and newer entrants such as Pizzeria Portofino and Legal Sea Foods. They said Trump is willing to knock down sections of ceiling or enclose outdoor areas along the river to attract restaurants or interactive experiences.
Tenant tours are expected to kick off Friday, said New York-based Newmark broker Jason Pruger.
“We have a motivated landlord who’s willing to divide it and get creative to fill the space,” Pruger said. “The focus has always been on hotel and residential capacity, and now they’re giving focus to the retail and making it an amenity for hotel guests, residents and the surrounding neighborhood.”
Retail brokers say the space is challenged by the lack of street frontage, limited accessibility and the space’s curved shape and relatively low height.
“The design was flawed from the get-go, with cavernous, irregular, low-ceiling retail spaces at the river level,” said Cresa retail broker Leslie Karr.
Karr is now based in Florida, but her longtime work in Chicago included advising against the retail design when she and a former colleague, the late Bruce Kaplan, met with the Trump Organization as it planned the project.
“Right now, there’s a lot of vacant space in Chicago and on the Mag Mile,” Karr said. “There’s a lot of competition from properties that don’t have convoluted design and floor plans.”
Site for protests
The tower, which is adorned with the Trump name in 20-foot-tall letters on the low-rise section along the river, also has attracted large crowds protesting the Republican president’s words and actions.
Barricades for months blocked the public from using the riverfront place until the fencing recently was taken down after pressure from city officials, the Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this month.
Longtime retail broker David Stone of Chicago-based Stone Real Estate said the space would be better used as a banquet area for the hotel or converted into offices for companies that don’t mind the association with the Trump name.
“The name is so polarizing that someone would have to be fully bought in politically to put their business there,” Stone said. “It would not be possible to separate a store or a restaurant from the branding of the building. Huge letters are right above your storefront. It’s inescapable.”
It would require a costly upfront commitment from the landlord to equip the space for restaurant use, Stone said.
“It would be a stunning restaurant with views of the river, but it would be extraordinarily expensive to build a full-service restaurant without the landlord being fully committed to having a signature restaurant in there,” Stone said.
Newmark brokers said larger dining or experience-based concepts could go along Wabash or Michigan avenues, with smaller shops filling spaces in between. The brokers downplayed challenges associated with the polarizing Trump name.
“At the end of the day, it will be based on the location and the deal,” Pruger said of potential leases. “Economics of the deal and being successful are what’s important. Based on the success of other businesses on the river, they know they can be successful at this location.”
For the record
The Newmark leasing team includes Chicago-based brokers James Schutter and Larry Kling, New York-based Jason Pruger and Jason Stein, and London-based Tim Newman and Simon Carson.