CHICAGO-Franczek Radelet PC, a law firm specializing in labor, employment and education law, has expanded its lease at 300 S. Wacker to 36,113 square feet. The company based the decision on new hires, a trend that’s starting to gain traction in the downtown office market.

The expansion wasn’t an early renewal or consolidation, two tenant moves seen the most in the past couple of years since the recession downtown. Melissa Rubenstein with Jones Lang LaSalle, who represented owner Harbor Group International, says that medium-sized firms are doing well downtown, and looking to expand.

The lease brings the building to 88% leased, but Rubenstein tells GlobeSt.com that her team is working on more leases now that will push the boutique, 512,400-square-foot building on the south end of Wacker Drive to more than 90% leased. “We have other deals that should be announced in the next month or two,” she says.

CHICAGO-Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services is marketing a two-building 396,000-square-foot office portfolio in downtown Chicago. One of the buildings is the landmark Heyworth Building, at 29 East Madison St., and the other is the Home Federal Building, which is two blocks away at 11 East Adams St. The buildings are being offered in an open bid and may be purchased together or separately. Scott Harris, an SVP in the firm’s Oak Brook office, and Howard Wiese, a VP in Chicago, are representing the seller, a Chicago-based investment firm. “These are both stabilized assets with an average occupancy of 90%.” The Heyworth Building is a 236,151-square-foot, 19-story office building designed by architect Daniel Burnham’s firm, D. H. Burnham & Co. Built in 1904, the Heyworth Building has been designated as a historical landmark. The 160,458-square-foot 15-story Home Federal Building is on the southeast corner of State and Adams streets. The building is ground floor-anchored by the Bank of America.

MONTGOMERY, IL-Fluid Defense Systems, a manufacturer of lubricant and fluid management products, has leased 65,000 square feet of distribution and manufacturing space at 2001 Greenfield Ave. The company is relocating three facilities in Oswego, a move that will consolidate as well as secure more overall space for the company. Al Caruana, director, and Britt Casey, executive director, of Cushman & Wakefield of Illinois Inc. represented Fluid Defense Systems in the three-year direct lease. Dan Dolan of Dolan/Murphy represented the owner/landlord, Dolan & Murphy Inc. Caterpillar Inc. was the previous tenant at 2001 Greenfield Avenue. The property is a free-standing, one-story building on 6.8 acres. Fluid

Defense will occupy 65% of this 101,750-square-foot building.

ALSIP, IL-Brian Vanosky, principal with Lee & Associates of Illinois LLC represented Daubert Cromwell in the purchase of a 98,500-square-foot manufacturing building at 12701 Ridgeway Ave. J. Lou Desanto with Midwest Commercial Real Estate, represented building ownership, a private trust, in the transaction.

CHICAGO-Global IT and telecommunications firm T-Systems will move its local offices to a new 22,000-square-foot space in the Esplanade IV office tower at 1901 Butterfield Road in Downers Grove. Andrea VanGelder and Diana Riekse with Jones Lang LaSalle completed the transaction on behalf of their long-time client, T-Systems. Philip Sheridan and David Andrews with Hamilton Partners represented building ownership. T-Systems is a division of the German conglomerate Deutsche Telekom AG. The firm currently leases 35,000 square feet at 701 Warrenville Rd. in Lisle and will be moving to the new space this spring.

LAKE ZURICH, IL-CB Richard Ellis represented Parkview Acquisitions in the sale of 1275 Ensell Rd. The 136,715-square-foot building was sold to JBS Lake Zurich LLC for an undisclosed price. The asking price was $7 million. Built in 2000, 1275 Ensell Rd. is a high-end manufacturing building situated on 8.5 acres. CBRE’s Keith Puritz, Brett Kroner, Ryan Bain and Zach Graham represented the seller in the transaction, while Paul Cawthon and Angelo Labriola from Sperry Van Ness negotiated on behalf of the buyer.

ROCKFORD, IL-The McShane Construction Co. was recently selected to complete a 32,150-square-foot Rockford Veterans Affairs Community-Based Outpatient Clinic on behalf of developer W.D. Schorsch Real Estate. The new single-story medical facility will be located on a 3.9-acre site at Featherstone Drive and Mulford Avenue. Groundbreaking for the new clinic will take place in Spring 2011 with completion scheduled for early 2012. An existing VA clinic located in Rockford will relocate to the new larger Rockford Veterans Affairs Community-Based Outpatient Clinic to better serve area veterans.         

ROLLING MEADOWS, IL-Venture One Real Estate, LLC, through its acquisition fund, VK Industrial I, LP, has closed on an industrial building lease at 3100 Tollview Dr. The property is a 31,720 square foot building which had been vacant. Venture One, in cooperation with ownership, was able to secure a 6b tax classification for the property and lease it to Nsoro, a division of MasTec. Elise Couston and Les Spinner of Paine/Wetzel represented ownership in the sale and lease transactions. Joseph Grace and Chad Bermingham of CresaPartners represented Nsoro in the lease transaction.

CHESTERFIELD, MO-Gordon Gundaker and Mike Hejna of Gundaker Commercial Group Inc. have decided to spilt with Grubb & Ellis Co. In 2005, the brokerage division of GCG became the St. Louis affiliate for Grubb & Ellis Co. “We have taken a focused look at the future and have determined the best course of action for our clients and our team is to dissolve our affiliation with Grubb & Ellis,” said Gundaker, chairman of GCG. “GCG prefers to focus its resources on its core customers in Missouri and Illinois,” he said in a statement. GCG will rebrand all its brokerage services immediately and clients should feel no effect from the dissolution of the relationship with Grubb & Ellis, he said.

BOWLING GREEN, KY- NHK of America Suspension Components will invest more than $20 million to construct a new 50,000 square-foot manufacturing plant here at the company’s existing property. Tthe Japanese automotive supplier will add up to 108 new jobs over the next several years to its existing workforce, which is currently just more than 200 employees. The company has become one of the world’s largest manufacturing plants for suspension coil springs for passenger cars and light trucks. It is also a leading supplier of trunk lid torsion bars and stabilizer links for the North American automotive industry. The new facility, which is expected to be completed by October of this year, will manufacture motor armature parts for electric and hybrid vehicles. The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority preliminarily approved tax incentives up to $2.5 million for this project through the Kentucky Business Investment program.

SIOUX FALLS, SD-John Reed, VP with NorthMarq Capital, arranged first mortgage financing through Freddie Mac for Foxmoor Phase III, which was financed at $7 million. The property is at 5001 W. Equestrian Pl. and consists 81,499 square feet of net rentable area and 107 multifamily units. Freddie Mac has also financed Phases I and II.