 During the Dot-com bubble of 1997-2001, some of SmithBucklin's client associations encountered "painful" financial cutbacks.On June 29, 2005, the company became employee-owned.In 2011, SmithBucklin contracted for 111,081 square feet at Chicago's former IBM Building, 330 N. Wabash Ave., under a 15-year lease that was set to begin in 2013.