Editing Willis Tower (section)

==== Renovation and relocation ====
[[File:6 102778 Sears Tower.jpg|thumb|The tower in 1978, after its completion]]
In February 1984, Sears announced that it would renovate the building to attract visitors to the lower floors.<ref name="n108282797">{{Cite news |date=February 1, 1984 |title=Sears Tower makes dramatic new entrance |pages=31 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108282797/sears-tower-makes-dramatic-new-entrance/ |access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref><ref name="n108282078">{{Cite news |date=February 5, 1984 |title=Sears Tower, world's tallest, to get face-lift |pages=44 |work=The Dispatch |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108282078/sears-tower-worlds-tallest-to-get/ |access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref> At the time, 6,500 Sears employees occupied more than half of the building,<ref name="n108282078" /><ref name="n108282656">{{Cite news |date=September 15, 1985 |title=Sears' Tower is still world's tallest |pages=42 |work=The Dispatch |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108282656/sears-tower-is-still-worlds-tallest/ |access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref> taking up the lowest 48 stories.<ref name="n108282656" /> The remainder of the tower was occupied by 5,500 employees from about 70 companies.<ref name="n108282078" /> As part of the project, the main entrance was covered with a four-story glass dome, and the first four stories were converted into a shopping atrium. In addition, a visitor center for the building's [[Willis Tower#Skydeck|Skydeck]] was constructed.<ref name="n108282797" /><ref name="n108282078" /> The renovations, designed by SOM, were completed in mid-1985.<ref name="n108282656" /> [[Paul Gapp]] of the ''Chicago Tribune'' wrote that SOM had "scaled the new entrance skillfully, in keeping with the main building's height" and that the new atrium "relieves the formerly cramped feeling from just inside the Franklin entrance".<ref name="n108282527">{{Cite news |last=Gapp |first=Paul |date=November 17, 1985 |title=Sears Tower's need for changes shows the dangers of thinking too big |pages=321 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108282527/sears-towers-need-for-changes-shows/ |access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref>

Sears announced in 1988 that it would sell the tower and relocate its merchandising division from the lower half of the building.<ref name="n108283288">{{Cite news |last=Ziemba |first=Stanley |date=November 6, 1988 |title=Sears executives face a towering selling job |pages=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108283334/ 30] |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108283288/sears-executives-face-a-towering/ |access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref> The company wanted to earn at least $1 billion from the sale of the Sears Tower, so it offered multiple concessions to potential buyers, including a guarantee that Sears would continue to pay rent on the lower half of the building until tenants were found for these stories.<ref name="n108283695">{{Cite news |date=April 4, 1989 |title=Sears offering tower concessions |pages=22 |work=The Dispatch |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108283695/sears-offering-tower-concessions/ |access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref> Four large firms were negotiating to buy the tower by July 1989.<ref name="n108283412">{{Cite news |last=Ziemba |first=Stanley |date=June 23, 1989 |title=Sears pushing $1 billion-plus bid for Tower |pages=41, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108283412/ 46] |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108283395/sears-pushing-1-billion-plus-bid-for/ |access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref> The company had difficulties finding a buyer, in part because the lower stories were too large for many potential tenants.<ref name="n108283103">{{Cite news |last=Ziemba |first=Stanley |date=November 5, 1989 |title=Sears faces tough sell leasing Tower office space |pages=135 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108283103/sears-faces-tough-sell-leasing-tower/ |access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref> Sears nearly sold the tower to Canadian company [[Olympia & York]], but the deal was canceled in September 1989 because the two firms could not agree on who would pay the property taxes.<ref name="n108283510">{{Cite news |last=Ziemba |first=Stanley |date=September 16, 1989 |title=Sears Tower sale to Olympia & York may be dead |pages=21, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108283549/ 23] |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108283510/sears-tower-sale-to-olympia-york-may/ |access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref> In November 1989, Sears decided to instead refinance the building.<ref name="Ziemba 1989">{{cite web |last=Ziemba |first=Stanley |date=November 16, 1989 |title=Sears Plans to Refinance, Keep Tower |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-11-16-8903100339-story.html |access-date=August 24, 2022 |website=Chicago Tribune}}</ref> The next year, Sears took out a mortgage loan on the tower for $850&nbsp;million from [[MetLife]] and [[AEW Capital Management]], with MetLife as the holder of the mortgage note; the loan would [[Maturity (finance)|mature]] in 2005.<ref name=":1" />

In 1990, the law firm of [[Keck, Mahin & Cate]] decided to move into a development that would become [[77 West Wacker Drive]], rebuffing Sears' attempts to entice the firm to stay.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 2, 2012|title=77 W. Wacker ready to go – Chicago Sun-Times |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3988744.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102130617/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3988744.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 2, 2012|access-date=September 12, 2022}}</ref> Just two years later, Sears began moving its own offices out of the building<ref>{{Cite web|title=Willis who? Sears Tower gets new name|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna31945093|access-date=November 10, 2021|website=NBC News|date=July 16, 2009 |language=en}}</ref> to a new campus in [[Hoffman Estates, Illinois]], which was completed in 1995.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.valuewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Sears_Tower.pdf|title=A Case Study of the Development, Re-financing and Sale of North America's Tallest Building|work=tribunedigital-chicagotribune|access-date=February 9, 2018|language=en|archive-date=November 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109041350/https://www.valuewalk.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref> As the maturation of the mortgage approached, Sears renegotiated the loan in 1994. The negotiations resulted in an agreement where Sears would no longer be liable for the $850&nbsp;million loan, although it would only nominally own the building, while AEW and MetLife effectively had total control. As part of the 1994 agreement, AEW and MetLife would be able to take official ownership of the building in 2003.<ref name=":1" /> In 1997, Toronto-based [[TrizecHahn]], at the time the lessee of the [[CN Tower]], acquired AEW's holdings in the building for $110&nbsp;million, assuming $4&nbsp;million in liabilities and a $734&nbsp;million mortgage.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vinocur |first=Barry | title=A Look at the Finer Points of the Sears Tower Sale | url=https://www.barrons.com/articles/SB881366507903480500 | work=[[Barron's (newspaper)|Barron's]] | date=December 8, 1997}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=December 14, 2001|title=Sears Tower: Headlines|url=http://www.searstower.org/news.html#A0203302202|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011214200520/http://www.searstower.org/news.html#A0203302202|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 14, 2001|access-date=September 12, 2022}}</ref>