The Willis Tower???

Sears Tower is no more, made obsolete by a company with an edifice complex.

The 110-story Chicago giant will be renamed Willis Tower under a leasing deal announced Thursday. The New York-based owners signed a lease with Willis Group Holdings Ltd., an insurance broker, for 140,000 square feet plus the naming rights.

Willis is the third-biggest company in its field, but it's taking on No. 1, Chicago's Aon Corp., in its own backyard. Like Aon, Willis likes to plaster its name on big buildings.

Under Chairman Joseph Plumeri, Willis put its name on a new London office building that opened last July amid pomp featuring the duke of York.

In Chicago, Willis will have bragging rights with its name on the former Sears Tower, the nation's tallest building. Aon, whose founding chairman is the name-conscious Patrick Ryan, attached itself in 2001 to the former Amoco Building, the fifth-tallest building in the United States and No. 2 in Chicago.

While fighting each other for business accounts worldwide, the two companies now have competing architectural symbols in Chicago.

Willis said it will consolidate five Chicago area offices and move 500 employees into the tower. The company said it is paying $14.50 per square foot in rent and that the naming rights come with no additional cost.

But the Sears Tower owners immediately disputed that point. Also, many Chicagoans hit the Internet to criticize the renaming, with some doubting it would take hold in the public's mind. Some of the tower's tenants were mad, too.

The relocation is expected to be done by late summer.

Full story here.

Via: The Chicago Sun-Times