WSJ: CME Group To Sell Chicago Board of Trade Building

June 21st, 2011 | by ashley gordon |

CME Group Inc. is looking to sell the landmark Chicago Board of Trade building, following warnings last week that the exchange operator may leave Illinois to avoid a heavy corporate tax burden.

CME has hired Jones Lang LaSalle and Holly Duran Real Estate Partners LLC to market the historic building, which anchors Chicagos financial district, and aims to arrange a 15-year lease to preserve a spot for its physical trading floors.

“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,” said Jamie Parisi, CMEs chief financial officer, in a statement.

Mr. Parisi reiterated CMEs commitment to “open outcry” trading, which accounted for about 20% of the 3.1 billion futures and options traded on CMEs markets last year.

CME Executive Chairman Terry Duffy last week said he and Mr. Parisi had been examining the possibility of relocating CMEs corporate base outside Illinois, which in January sharply raised the corporate tax rate as part of efforts to put the states finances in order.

The 80-year-old Art Deco building was designated a historic landmark in 1978 and is topped by a three-story sculpture of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and grain.

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