The operator of the 360 Chicago observation deck near the top of the former John Hancock Center has purchased the building’s 95th and 96th floors, which until September housed the Signature Room restaurant and Signature Lounge. 360 Chicago hasn’t decided how it will use the two floors, which are located directly above its 94th-floor observation deck. A representative said the space will no longer be used as a restaurant.
Operating a restaurant “simply isn’t our business model,” said 360 Chicago Managing Director Nichole Benolken. But the space will remain open to the public. “We’re not going to put an exclusive private club up there,” Benolken said.
“We’re uniquely suited, given our investment into and presence in the building, to create something spectacular.” The of the Signature Room, one of the city’s iconic tourist attractions, was a blow to the Magnificent Mile, where the retail vacancy rate as a result of online shopping trends and the pandemic. A message posted last September to the restaurant’s social media pages cited COVID-19 and subsequent “severe economic hardship.
” The shopping district’s vacancy rate hit about 30% last year, a historic high, said Magnificent Mile Association CEO Kimberly Bares, but 360 Chicago’s investment shows new uses can be found for empty properties. “360 Chicago is breaking all kinds of records, so they clearly understand what consumers crave,” she said. “And having this space used by someone who we.
