Colliers to Lease Ex-Motorola Campus

CHICAGO—The migration of Motorola Mobility from north suburban Libertyville to downtown's Merchandise Mart earlier this year opened a big hole in the suburban office market. And BECO Management Inc., the new owner of Motorola's former campus, has decided to bring in Colliers to help fill it.

Steven W. Kling, principal; and Jason M. Simon, senior vice president, both with the office advisory group in the Chicago office, will market and lease the 1.1 million-square-feet of space. The Rockville, MD-based BECO closed on its purchase of the 84-acre campus at 600 N. US Hwy. 45 in July. Motorola vacated the facility in the spring.

“We are flattered and so excited to have been selected as BECO's partner for this tremendous endeavor,” says David R. Kahnweiler, chairman and chief executive officer of Colliers | Chicago. “We are extremely confident in our leasing team that has a long history of successful large scale property repositioning projects and will certainly expend all resources necessary to support the redevelopment efforts.”

BECO plans to make significant renovations to the campus, similar to its repositioning of the 1.8-million-square-foot former IBM campus in Charlotte, NC that it purchased in 2010. It re-branded that property, only 30% occupied at the time of purchase, as “Innovation Park Charlotte” and following a $100 million renovation brought it up to 95% leased. BECO expects it will have the Libertyville campus ready for occupancy by summer or early fall of 2015.

“The Innovation Park concept has resonated with the market, particularly larger enterprises seeking more than four corners of plain office space,” says Chris Epstein, managing partner and president of BECO South and Midwest divisions. “Our company has spent the past four years refining and perfecting the concept. We believe the former Motorola Mobility site and the Village of Libertyville are the perfect launch pad to expand this offering to the greater Chicago area.”

Colliers International has also taken part in similar large-scale repositioning projects. The firm was hired by Philadelphia-based Equus Capital Partners Ltd. to market the four-building, 1.1-million-square-foot Kemper Lakes Business Center in suburban Long Grove after the Kemper Insurance left for a new downtown headquarters.

Kling led a team that over a six-year period, transformed the campus from a ghost town to a thriving mini-city teeming with workers. Fresenius Kabi USA LLC, for example, signed a long-term lease for 262,291-square-feet, and Acco Brands Corp., in another long-term lease, signed for 189,371-square-feet. Today, Kling told GlobeSt.com, tenants occupy 93% of the complex. Furthermore, Equus paid about $30 million for the buildings in 2005, and MetLife recently decided to buy them for $130 million.

Colliers was also responsible for refilling Tallgrass Corporate Center, a 548,100-square-foot property in Bolingbrook also owned by Equus, after Tellabs vacated it in 2004. “It took about 36 months to get it done,” Kling said. The team completed six leases totaling nearly 440,000-square-feet of space for that campus.