An iconic Chicago building is losing its namesake tenant. The Wrigley Company announced Thursday that it’s moving out of the Wrigley Building on Michigan Avenue by the end of 2012. The company has built a new $57 million complex on Chicago’s Goose Island as part of a plan to consolidate employees. The project was first envisioned in the early 2000s.

“The Wrigley Building is an icon of Chicago, we love what it has brought to the city, we are absolutely sure that for the long term there will be a Wrigley Building, and it will look as stunning as it does now,” said Andy Pharoah, Wrigley’s senior vice president of corporate affairs. “But for us as a company, we want to bring all of our global team together, in a modern, open-plan environment that encourages people to work together that really gets the best innovation possible and really supports creativity.”

Pharoah says the company has never occupied more than 40 percent of the eighty-seven year old building, and that they have not yet decided how to invest in the space. They are planning on renovating the space to attract new tenants to what is now a largely vacant structure.

Employees began moving to the Goose Island building in 2005. 

“Five years ago, we had a number of associates moving over there. If you asked them now, would they come back, they say ‘Absolutely not,’ they love it as a place to work, and we think it’s very good news for us as a company,” said Pharoah.