While plenty of Loop tenants are still giving back square footage, Huntington Bank is quietly moving in the other direction, grabbing more office space in Chicago’s core business district. The regional lender is doubling down on a high-amenity slice of downtown at a time when many companies are still slimming down, a move that feels more like a targeted gamble on the nicest buildings than a broad vote of confidence in the overall market.
According to Crain's Chicago Business, Huntington has expanded its Loop footprint and is consolidating teams there, a notable outlier in a city where “downsizing” remains the default setting. Crain’s reports that the bank’s deal was big enough to show up on the radar of landlords and brokers who obsessively track every large downtown move, framing the expansion as part of Huntington’s broader effort to dig deeper roots in key local markets.
Loop Market Snapshot
Cushman & Wakefield's Q1 2026 report shows the Chicago CBD still wrestling with hefty vacancy of about 27.4 percent and roughly 1.07 million square feet of negative net absorption for the quarter. The brokerage highlights a pronounced “flight to quality,” with trophy and Class A towers hanging onto tenants far better than older, less-polished buildings. That split goes a long way toward explaining how some firms can justify growing downtown footprints while the overall numbers still look rough.
Landlords that spent heavily on upgrades are seeing that strategy pay off. Tishman Speyer’s renovation of 222 N. LaSalle helped lock in a long extension with Vedder for roughly 163,000 square feet, according to CityBiz. Other leases and consolidations in the same tower, including a roughly 40,000-square-foot move flagged earlier this year, underscore that amenity-rich buildings can still lure institutional tenants. Those pockets of activity are the reward for owners that upgraded lobbies, food and beverage options, and flexible floorplates while the market was wobbling.
Huntington's Strategy
Huntington’s own investor materials lay out the bigger picture. In a May 27 8-K filing, the company said it is “bringing [the] full Huntington franchise to a broader set of markets and customers,” language that lines up with recent acquisitions and hiring in targeted regions. The bank’s push for both geographic growth and product diversification to serve commercial and wealth clients helps explain why it is willing to add space in select downtowns like Chicago, even when headlines are still dominated by cutbacks.
For Loop watchers, Huntington’s move is a signal, not necessarily a turning point, for downtown leasing. Cushman & Wakefield expects demand to keep favoring modern, amenity-heavy assets, which suggests that any similar expansions will cluster in top-tier buildings instead of lifting the entire market. Brokers say the next few quarters of lease activity will show whether Huntington is a one-off optimist or the first in a line of regional players betting that the right kind of Loop office is still worth the rent.
