Google Delays Thompson Center Move Until 2028, Pushing Back Downtown Revitalization Efforts

Google's planned move into the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago has hit another snag. The tech giant announced on Wednesday that it will delay its occupancy of the redeveloped building until 2028, a year later than initially anticipated.

The company had previously targeted early 2027 to relocate to the renovated space, but did not provide a reason for the latest delay in its blog post announcement.

Google's plans for the Thompson Center have been closely watched by industry experts and city officials, who see it as a potential catalyst for growth in downtown Chicago. The company has signed an agreement to purchase the building for $105M, with plans to occupy at least 600K SF of the 954K SF of renovated space.

While Google will take up a significant portion of the building's available space, it is expected to offer the remaining 354K SF for lease to other tenants. The company has tapped CBRE and Savills to handle office and retail leasing respectively at the Thompson Center.