The Colliers International Chicago-based Office Advisory Group is pleased to announce David W. Florent, principal; Steven W. Kling, principal; and Francis R. Prock, principal, have been retained by Oak Brook, IL-based Retail Properties of America, Inc. (RPAI) to market and lease “Zurich Towers” at 1400 American Lane, Schaumburg, IL.
Zurich Towers is a two-building, Class A office property which contains approximately 895,400 square feet located in the heart of the bustling Schaumburg market in Chicago’s Northwest suburbs. The property is ideally located directly adjacent to Woodfield Mall, the nation’s tenth largest enclosed mall, and also affords excellent access to highways I-290, I-90, and I-355.
Zurich Insurance Company has been the primary occupant at Zurich Towers since its development in 1986. In 2016 Zurich will relocate to its new build-to-suit headquarters facility that is currently under construction on a portion of the Motorola Solutions campus in Schaumburg, IL.
“Collier’s International has a solid track record of rebranding single tenant centers throughout Illinois and we are excited to be working with them on this incredible repositioning project,” stated Gerald Wright, senior vice president and director of asset management for RPAI. “We believe that this property represents one of the best large block office locations in the Chicago suburban market and we are eager to unveil our vision for the space in collaboration with the Colliers team.”
Florent, Kling, and Prock have taken many large single-tenant headquarter facilities and assisted developers/owners with rebranding the campuses into multi-tenant properties. They brought the nearly abandoned 1.1 million square foot former Kemper Insurance headquarters in Long Grove, IL from 27 percent leased to over 90 percent leased following a massive undertaking to transform the building into a multi-tenant facility. Additionally, Florent, Kling, and Prock successfully repositioned the former 550,000 square foot Tellabs regional headquarters in Bolingbrook, IL, now known as Tallgrass Corporate Center. The team brought the vacant facility to 90 percent occupied in only 2.5 years. Six leases totaling nearly 440,000 square feet of space have been completed there, a remarkable feat considering the property’s location in a tertiary office market.
“We are flattered and so excited to have been selected as RPAI’s partner for this tremendous endeavor,” said David R. Kahnweiler, SIOR, chairman and CEO of Colliers | Chicago. “We are extremely confident in our leasing team’s long history of successful, large scale property repositioning and will certainly expend all resources necessary to support the marketing efforts,” he added.
According to Colliers International’s year-end 2014 suburban Chicago office market report, the Northwest submarket has continued to improve throughout 2014 and achieved a six-year vacancy rate low of 20.8 percent, down from 22.7 percent just one year prior.
“With a declining vacancy rate – especially in the Class A sector – and two consecutive years of positive absorption, the Northwest market is making a comeback,” said Kling. “We intend to capitalize on that momentum and hit the ground running to make RPAI’s vision a reality.”
