By Dees Stribling - GlobeSt.com

CHICAGO - October 17, 2001 - The McGraw-Hill Cos. has signed a 15-year lease in Downtown's Prudential Plaza I, nearly doubling its space in the building from 78,000 sf to 150,000 sf. The publisher, which owns such brands as Standard & Poor's, Business Week and McGraw Hill Education, will occupy five floors of the structure.

McGraw-Hill, which had occupied space in both Pru I and II, is moving from its space in the latter building as well as from the West Loop and in north suburban Lincolnwood. Prudential Plaza is a two-building complex in the East Loop and was bought by San Francisco-based Shorenstein Co. in 2000, making it the company's second major property in Chicago after its 1998 purchase of the John Hancock Center.

The 41-story, 1.1-million-sf Pru I was the tallest building in Chicago when it was built in the 1950s, as one of the first major office developments in the city after the Depression and World War II. Rents in the building range from $20 to $23 per sf. Insignia/ESG represented McGraw-Hill in the transaction, and Pru I was represented in-house by Danny Nikitas and by J.F. McKinney & Associates.