Granted, since we live in a penthouse above the mall, I have a vested financial interest in this deal even if I'm not the broker on it, but it's been over a month since ownership last told me that they were in final negotiations with two different tenants and were weeks away from announcing which one won out.  The deal is no small shakes, as much as 200,000 square feet, to take all the space in the building that's vacant, including Ann Taylor Petite's space (they are moving out to consolidate in Water Tower I guess).  Even Talbots, the word was, would be shuffled around a bit to make more Michigan Avenue frontage for whoever the ultimate tenant was, and this was supposed to be done in time to have the new store open for back-to-school shopping next fall.

The lower level Bockwinkle's space, will unfortunately (from the residents' perspective) be part of the deal as well to provide for needed customer purchase staging to the loading dock level.  That tells me it's someone with something that might be heavy, like a furniture place or an electronics retailer (maybe Best Buy, since I tried to get them to let me represent them for a flagship store here and they played very coy in shying me away - okay, blowing me off completely).  I know it's not supposed to be clothing, but that's the only "no" I've heard. 

I won't even bother calling ownership anymore, because the potential tenant we had is not interested in this now, and last time I spoke with them they were almost hostile they were so frazzled working on the two finalist deals.  We don't follow the news, but it surprises me that Crain's or someone hasn't even floated a rumor out there as to who it is...unless someone has heard something???