It’s Not Much – But it’s Really Nothing

The news report said “Tallest U.S. building to get new name.” I immediately wondered if Sears Holdings Corp. chairman Edward Lampert was going to do that old-fashioned billionaire thing and name the company’s old headquarters after himself.

Alas, I am so out of date! First of all, Sears moved out of the downtown tower to suburban Hoffman Estates back in the 1990s.

Second of all, billionaires who name buildings after themselves sometimes have “issues.” (Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casinos last month filed for Chapter 11 – for the third time!)

Thirdly, when it comes to slapping down big bucks for naming rights, the retailers taking part are few and far between. The Sears Tower won’t soon become the Walmart Tower. Not even the Big Lots Tower!

In these tricky times, think about an industry that seems to keep finding new ways to get on the receiving end of fiduciary firehoses pumping gushers of moolah: the financial services industry, of course.

The Sears Tower will soon become the Willis Tower – for Willis Group, a titan of an insurance broker that traces its roots to the early 1800s in London, through 20^th-century mergers and acquisitions with American firms, and ultimately a leveraged buyout by KKR, followed by still more buyouts.

Well, at least it’s big.

It’s also taking a lease out on a bunch of floors in the Sears Tower, the type of move sought with such desperate alacrity by landlords in the current climate that Willis probably negotiated the naming rights for a pittance.

Just my guess. A pittance, I say! It’s not much – but it’s really nothing.

Either way, I’m sure Willis didn’t pay retail for it.