Crain’s Chicago Business reports that big-box retailer Target is negotiating with the developers Joseph Freed and Associates for space at the venerable Carson Pirie Scott & Co. building, now named the Sullivan Center.  Formerly home of the department store Carson Pirie Scott, the building, designed by Louis Sullivan, has remained largely vacant following a recent substantial rehab effort.  The upper floors house the School of the Art Institute Chicago’s departments of  architecture, interior architecture, and designed objects and the architectural mega-firm Gensler.  The building anchors the slightly more downtrodden southern end of State Street within the Loop. 

Chicago Business reports that Target has been scouting downtown real estate for months and that serious talks are underway between the retailer and Freed.  They note it would be a significant victory for Freed, whose nearby Block 37 development has been tangled in foreclosure suits over the past few months.  This would be the second Target store for the downtown area, as a another opened in recent years about one mile away in the South Loop.

Perhaps the design savvy retailer will find their next Michael Graves upstairs.