Lululemon signs 12,000-square-foot lease at Tribune Tower on the Magnificent Mile

Lululemon has signed a lease for about 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space at Tribune Tower, 435 N Michigan Ave, at the corner of N Michigan Ave and E Illinois St on the Magnificent Mile. The deal was reported by Crain’s Chicago Business and summarized in Bisnow’s Chicago Deal Sheet on September 29, 2026, and as of October 3, 2026 none of the published reports gave an opening date for the store.

The new shop will sit at the base of the 1925 neo-Gothic landmark, on the Streeterville side of Michigan Avenue just north of the Chicago River. The Real Deal, in a September 30, 2026 story republished on Yahoo Finance, put the size at 12,000 square feet and identified the address as 435 N Michigan Ave. Commercial Real Estate Direct also reported the 12,000-square-foot lease on September 30, describing the building above the shops as a 162-unit condominium.

What the reports say about the Tribune Tower lease

The published coverage is short on deal terms. None of the outlets that could be read for this story named the brokers on either side, the length of the lease or the rent. None said when construction on the space would start or when the company expects to open. Crain’s original article could not be read for this story, so details from that report appear here only as Bisnow and The Real Deal relayed them.

The reports also do not say whether the Tribune Tower location will replace one of Lululemon’s existing stores in the area. The Real Deal and Commercial Real Estate Direct both listed the company’s current downtown stores as still operating and made no mention of a move or closure.

Who owns the shops at the base of Tribune Tower

Tribune Tower was home to the Chicago Tribune and WGN Radio for decades before Los Angeles-based CIM Group and Chicago’s Golub & Co. bought the building and turned the upper floors into condominiums. According to a January 2024 CommercialCafe report, the redevelopment set aside roughly 50,000 square feet for retail. In June 2025, Chicago-based North American Real Estate bought the retail portion from the CIM and Golub venture for $62 million, CoStar reported in a review of the year’s notable sales. CoStar said about 64 percent of the retail space was empty when the sale closed. The Real Deal identified investor Savas Er as the head of North American Real Estate.

Lululemon joins a group of tenants that have signed on at the building, according to The Real Deal and earlier coverage of the property:

• Fare, a fast-casual restaurant, has taken the 1,800-square-foot former Foxtrot store facing the plaza, The Real Deal reported.
• Big City Optical, an eyewear retailer, has signed a lease at the tower, according to The Real Deal.
• Intuit TurboTax has also signed a lease at the building, The Real Deal reported.
• A. Lange & Söhne, the German watchmaker, leased 1,409 square feet on the Michigan Avenue corner overlooking Pioneer Court, CommercialCafe reported in January 2024.
• Museum of Ice Cream signed a seven-year lease for 13,544 square feet in 2021 as the redeveloped tower’s first retail tenant, MR Magazine reported on October 7, 2021.

At 12,000 square feet, the Lululemon space would be close in size to the Museum of Ice Cream lease and far larger than the Fare and A. Lange & Söhne spaces described in those reports.

Lululemon’s other Chicago stores

Bisnow reported that Lululemon has six other locations in Chicago. The Real Deal and Commercial Real Estate Direct named two of the downtown stores, and earlier coverage describes a third in Lincoln Park:

• The company operates a store in the 900 North Michigan Shops, about half a mile north of Tribune Tower, according to The Real Deal.
• Lululemon also runs a Gold Coast store at 930 N Rush St, The Real Deal and Commercial Real Estate Direct reported.
• In 2019 the company opened what CNBC described as the brand’s biggest store ever, a store of more than 20,000 square feet on W North Ave in Lincoln Park with a restaurant and workout studios.

The Lincoln Park building has had its own troubles. CoStar reported in July 2025 that the property’s owner, the Feil Organization, was dealing with loan problems while Lululemon sought to lower the retailer’s rent there.

Magnificent Mile vacancy by the numbers

The lease lands as landlords along North Michigan Avenue report more leasing activity after years of empty storefronts. Different firms measure the corridor in different ways, so the published figures do not line up neatly:

• The Real Deal reported that retail availability on the Magnificent Mile stands at 26.1 percent, down about three points from 33.1 percent a year earlier.
• The same report put the availability rate at 33.8 percent at the height of the pandemic’s hit to foot traffic.
• Stone Real Estate measured Magnificent Mile vacancy at 17.5 percent, down from a 26 percent high in 2022, ABC7 Chicago reported on July 17, 2026.
• CoStar’s vacancy figure for the street was 16.6 percent, according to the same ABC7 report.

ABC7 listed Uniqlo, Aritzia, Mango and a Harry Potter store among recent arrivals on the avenue, with American Eagle Outfitters and Portillo’s among the tenants with signed leases. Hoodline reported in July 2026 that some observers warned the recovery could stall without new uses for large-format retail spaces. The Real Deal also noted that other owners on the street are spending on their buildings, citing a $40 million investment by Pacific Life in the insurer’s vertical mall.

A smaller U.S. store pipeline for Lululemon

The Chicago lease comes during a slow stretch for the company in the United States. In Lululemon’s second quarter results released September 3, 2026, Lululemon reported that total net revenue fell 4 percent to $2.4 billion and that U.S. revenue fell 8 percent. The company projected full-year net revenue of $10.35 billion to $10.5 billion, a decline of 5 to 7 percent, and said the quarter ended with 825 company-operated stores worldwide. The release named Meghan Frank and André Maestrini as interim co-CEOs and said incoming chief executive Heidi O’Neill would start the following week.

On the earnings call that day, Frank described the store plan as “very measured,” Bisnow reported. According to a transcript published by The Motley Fool, the company now expects about 35 net new company-operated stores in fiscal 2026, down from earlier guidance of 40. Only about 10 of those are planned for North America, and seven of the 10 are in Mexico, according to the transcript. Executives said the company is “scrutinizing every deal across all new store openings and optimizations,” and also plans to cut the company’s pop-up store count from 65 at the end of last year to about 40 by the end of 2026.

Bisnow noted that the Tribune Tower lease was signed only weeks after Lululemon said the company would scale back U.S. expansion. Lululemon has not said in any of the reports reviewed whether the Tribune Tower store will carry the restaurant or studio features of the Lincoln Park location.

Opening date and hours not yet announced

As of October 3, 2026, there was no published opening date, store phone number or hours for the Tribune Tower location. Shoppers can still visit the brand’s existing stores in the 900 North Michigan Shops and at Lululemon on N Rush St in the Gold Coast, both a short walk north of the new space. The tower sits at the southwest edge of Streeterville, where the Magnificent Mile meets the river.

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