In a press conference on Wednesday, it was revealed that the state has reached an agreement with Google for the sale of the famed Thompson Center. Google will buy the entire building for $105 million following renovation by other organizations and the Thompson Center will be redeveloped as an office suite for Google’s workforce. Google welcomed its workforce back to offices in April and has expressed plans to add thousands more workers.
Earlier this year Thompson Center located at 100 W Randolph Street in The Loop was sold with a planned multi-million dollar renovation to the Prime Group. The Thompson Center was designed by famed postmodern architect Helmut Jahn and opened in 1985 as the State of Illinois Center. The Prime Group which is headed by Michael Reschke of JAHN Architects made bid for the Thompson Center in April. The developer had planned a $300 million renovation to execute a gut rehab of the facility including opening the atrium to the outdoors and enclosing the work floors to reduce heat expenses, as well as renovating all of the floors. In the original plan, the state would eventually buy back parts of the building after Prime Group’s renovation.