CME Group hires Jones Lang LaSalle, Holly Duran Real Estate Partners to help sell historic Chicago Board of Trade Building; 1.4 million-sq.-ft. north and south buildings offered as partial sale leaseback

Michelle Rivera

CHICAGO , June 13, 2011 (press release) – CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that it has hired Jones Lang LaSalle and Holly Duran Real Estate Partners LLC (HDREP) to market the historic Chicago Board of Trade Building, located in the city's Financial District, for sale. The landmark property, called "one of Chicago's great skyscrapers" by the Chicago Tribune, is composed of three buildings, including the main tower (north building), the "Annex" (south building) and the east building. The 1.4 million-square-foot north and south buildings are being offered as a partial sale-leaseback. CME Group will retain ownership of the east building, including the financial product trading facilities and office space, and will enter into a long-term lease of the agricultural commodities trading facilities and certain office space in the north building.

"CME Group remains committed to our floor based membership and open outcry trading services, which continue to be a profitable part of our business and serve our customers well," said Jamie Parisi, CME Group Chief Financial Officer. "The sale of the Chicago Board of Trade north and south buildings will enable CME Group to continue to reinvest in our core derivatives business while still leasing about 150,000 square feet in the north and south buildings, including the agricultural trading floor. CME Group will continue to own and occupy the 288,000 square foot east building."

Leading the Jones Lang LaSalle team on the transaction are Managing Directors Bruce Miller and Jim Postweiler, Vice President Jascint Vukelich and Associate Nooshin Felsenthal. Holly Duran, Principal of HDREP, has served as CME Group's strategic global real estate advisor for more than 30 years and will be co-brokering the sale, along with Associate Jeff Mulder.

Duran said: "With the global nature of CME Group, a vibrant trading floor complex and as many as 30,000 people a day walking through the building's magnificent lobby, this landmark property holds broad international appeal. The unique building hosts many of the world's leading market participants. We expect significant interest from investors across the country and around the world who want a core property with value-add potential."

Said Miller: "This is truly one of the most iconic buildings in the Chicago skyline, amidst a city known for its architecture. But in addition to its outer beauty, this landmark also offers enormous infrastructure redundancies with regards to its power, cooling and telecommunications, making it quite appealing to tenants. That, and its significant upside, will be a major draw for investors."

The property is located at 141 West Jackson Boulevard in Chicago's Central Loop. It was built in 1930 and designated a historic landmark in 1978. The building is widely known for its art deco architecture and iconic three-story sculpture of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and grain, as well as its robust, state-of-the-art infrastructure and electronic trading space with high ceilings. In 2006, the building's owners completed a $20 million renovation program.

About CME Group

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME and Globex are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About Holly Duran Real Estate Partners

Based in Chicago, Holly Duran Real Estate Partners LLC (www.hdrealestate.com) is a global real estate strategy and services firm dedicated to providing innovative, cost-efficient solutions to commercial tenants. The firm has negotiated over 15 million square feet of office, industrial and data center leases in over 65 cities, 36 states and nine countries, managing transactions and lease portfolios for clients ranging from small professional firms to large multi-national organizations. HDREP provides a full scope of real estate services, including brokerage, strategic advisory, investment sales, acquisitions and dispositions, development, real estate finance and analysis, real estate valuation and project management. HDREP represents more futures-related business than any other real estate advisor in Chicago, in addition to clients in the financial, legal and entertainment industries. Clients include CME Group, Rosenthal Collins Group, TBA Global, Wheelhouse Solutions, Broker's Risk Placement Services, The Heico Companies, LLC, Levy Family Partners, MF Global Inc., Sperling & Slater, P.C., Wind Point Partners and McDermott Will & Emery.

About Jones Lang LaSalle

Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether a sale, financing, repositioning, advisory or recapitalization execution. In 2010 alone, Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets completed $43 billion in investment sale and debt and equity transactions globally. The firm's dealmakers completed $33 billion in global investment sales and buy-side transactions, equating to nearly $140 million of investment trades completed every working day around the globe. In the United States, Jones Lang LaSalle grew its office broker volumes by 257 percent in 2010 and is quickly gaining market share across all property types. Jones Lang LaSalle's Capital Markets team comprises approximately 800 specialists, operating in 185 major markets worldwide.

Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE: JLL) is a financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate. The firm offers integrated services delivered by expert teams worldwide to clients seeking increased value by owning, occupying or investing in real estate. With 2010 global revenue of more than $2.9 billion, Jones Lang LaSalle serves clients in 60 countries from more than 1,000 locations worldwide, including 185 corporate offices. The firm is an industry leader in property and corporate facility management services, with a portfolio of approximately 1.8 billion square feet worldwide. LaSalle Investment Management, the company's investment management business, is one of the world's largest and most diverse in real estate with more than $43 billion of assets under management. For further information, please visit www.joneslanglasalle.com.

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