Fenwal Signs 145,000-SF Lease for New HQ

Fenwal, a supplier of products and services to the transfusion medicine industry, is newly independent from former parent firm Baxter International Inc. Fenwal is moving from Baxter's Round Lake Beach Campus to the Kemper center, with 270 employees, in the fourth quarter.

Timothy Scannell, vice president of BPG Properties, says the company is taking the majority of the 192,000-sf building three. The rest of the space is empty, but another tenant "is taking 9,000 sf, but it's not official yet," he says.

The property owners are in the middle of a $35-million renovation of the complex. "The building used to be the Kemper Insurance headquarters, and we've been completely repositioning the building. There's a great deal of construction, all of building one has been under construction for a year now. We did a new entrance, corridors, bathrooms, windows and parking," Scannell tells GlobeSt.com. "The improvements should be substantially finished, the exterior, by July, and more corridor work will be complete by year-end." The entire property is about 60% leased.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich said the Long Grove area is a "hotbed for pharmaceutical and life science companies" in a statement announcing the incentive package, geared to keeping the company from leaving the state. The Northwest Chicago market has an average lease rate of $24 per sf, gross.

David Florent and Steven Kling with Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler represented BPG in the lease. Leonard Turelli and Timothy Henery with Highview Partners represented Fenwal.