Marshall Field building nears lease with tech firm

Tech companies keep shopping for workspace in the redeveloped upper floors of the Marshall Field building on State Street.

As Toronto-based real estate firm Brookfield Properties continues converting the top six floors of the Loop landmark into offices, it is in advanced talks with Chicago-based consumer-insights company Numerator to move its headquarters there, according to sources familiar with negotiations.

Numerator is close to leasing about 60,000 square feet in the building, where it would move its home office after its lease for around 50,000 square feet at Willis Tower expires late next year.

The company is the second tech firm close to a deal in Brookfield’s 650,000-square-foot revamp of the floors at 24 E. Washington St., which it bought last year from retail chain Macy’s for $30 million. Online secondary ticket marketplace Vivid Seats is nearing a deal to lease around 110,000 square feet there, where it would move from a pair of buildings several blocks west.

Numerator, known as Market Track before it acquired InfoScout in 2017 and rebranded the combined entity last year, would further validate the Marshall Field building as an office destination if its deal is completed. Brookfield is trying to sell companies on its vision for the historic property and its large floor plates, which are in vogue but rare in vintage Central Loop properties.

A spokesman for Numerator, which is owned by San Francisco-based Vista Equity Partners, declined to comment.

Numerator tracks purchasing behavior and can provide data to retailers, for example, on when and where consumers buy things. The company this year had about 1,500 employees total, with around 250 in Chicago.

Numerator is poised to leave a building in Willis Tower that is going through a rebirth of its own. Private-equity giant Blackstone has had a lot of success luring tenants to the city’s tallest skyscraper as it spends well north of half a billion dollars on a renovation and addition to the tower’s lower floors.

Jack O’Brien, Daniel Heckman and Caroline Colnon of real estate leasing firm Telos Group represent Brookfield.