Suburban Submarkets Have Renewed Energy
Class A buildings have the amenities needed to compete, and can offer space at a cheaper price.
CHICAGO—Companies have continued streaming from the suburbs into Downtown Chicago offices, but highly developed suburban business centers like Schaumburg can also attract new tenants. Triumph Higher Education Group, for example, just decided to move its headquarters from Hoffman Estates to a 21,000-square-foot space at 150 N. Martingale Rd. in Schaumburg, backfilling some of the 190,000 square feet formerly occupied by The Nielsen Co. which moved to downtown Chicago last year.
“You can get the younger workforce out in the suburbs,” Mark Kolar, a senior vice president with JLL, tells GlobeSt.com. “There is a lot of energy in that business environment,” especially when it comes to offices as significant as the Martingale complex. It has an amenity base, including a new tenant lounge, café, and fitness club, that compares favorably with what some firms seek in Chicago’s CBD. But unlike downtown, companies that choose the suburbs don’t “have to compete with the Facebooks and Googles of the world.”
Triumph offers degree programs, professional diploma programs and online education in the culinary arts. It will move this October, bringing 100 jobs to the area and has plans to hire roughly 100 more over the next few years.
“We’re experiencing growth like we never have before, and so it was crucial that we find a new headquarters to accommodate the future needs of the company,” says Jack Larson, Triumph’s executive chairman of the board. “We are taking our world-class culinary education programs to the next level and enhancing our online offerings both domestically and internationally.”
Kolar specializes in office and higher education clients in suburban Chicago, and along with Andy Strand, JLL executive vice president, and Adam Pines, associate, negotiated the lease on behalf of Triumph.
“There’s a reason landlords are repositioning their assets, and it’s not just a response to backfill vacancies left behind by companies relocating downtown but rather the convenient lifestyle employers seek for their employees,” says Lauren Tilmont, JLL research analyst. “Given the reinvestment in the Schaumberg area paired with the removal of some of these mega-corporate campuses from its inventory, we will have renewed energy in a viable submarket.”