Three Banks And A Floating Rate To Refinance Chicago's West Loop

Update. The financing was reported as a target on August 27; the close, the syndicate, the floating structure and the shelf designation are new.

Tishman Speyer completed a $340 million CMBS refinancing of The Franklin, securitized as CHI 2026-FRKLN. JPMorgan led; Bank of America and Deutsche Bank were co-lenders. The structure is a five-year floating-rate loan — a two-year initial term plus three 12-month extension options. Proceeds retire the existing loan and fund leasing.

The complex is two towers: 227 West Monroe at 60 stories and 222 West Adams at 34 stories, approximately 2.5 million square feet, now 84% leased. Tishman Speyer has signed 460,000 square feet of new leases and extensions since June 2025. Tenants include the Options Clearing Corporation, Robert W. Baird, Amazon Web Services, Guggenheim Partners and The Trade Desk.

Derived: $136 per square foot on total area; $161.90 per leased square foot. The 460,000 square feet represents 18.4% of the complex re-leased in roughly 15 months — about 30,667 square feet per month. Roughly 400,000 square feet remain vacant.

Three of the largest banks in the market split a single office loan and took it to securitization. That is the tell. No individual balance sheet wanted $340 million of Chicago office exposure, but three of them together would originate it if the CMBS market would take it out — and it did.

The floating-rate, two-plus-three structure is the second tell. Neither borrower nor lender would fix for five years here. The borrower is unwilling to lock a rate it expects to beat; the lender is unwilling to commit term to a building with 400,000 square feet still to fill. The extension options are a shared bet that leasing finishes before the rate environment turns.

The leasing record is what made the deal financeable. Roughly 30,700 square feet a month sustained across fifteen months, in a market widely written off — that pace, not the tenant names, is what a securitization desk underwrites.

Implications. For owners of large CBD office with real leasing momentum, capital exists — but it comes syndicated, floating, short and cheap per foot. Anyone modeling a fixed-rate ten-year refinancing on a partially leased tower is modeling a product that is not being offered. Demonstrated leasing pace is now the underwriting input that matters most; a record of signed square footage per month does more for proceeds than a rent roll of recognizable names.