Enterprise Solutions will offer companies a variety of servicesincluding site selection, design and construction, the companysays. The division can either help select a site or develop abuilding on a site the business owns or has selected. The divisionwill offer management services and can assist the business withselling the building in the future, Ward says. The division canadditionally assist the business with having a family trust own thebuilding and lease it back to the company or establishing a limitedliability corporation which would lease the property to thebusiness. "It is a market that is not being served here in Chicagoat all. We thought that we could bring kind of a one-stop, turn-keysolution to these local entrepreneurs," Ward says. Businesses canthen choose what services they would like to use, he says.

Alter owns their own building, Ward says, and the companybelieves there are benefits and savings that could make ownershippreferential and more cost-effective than leasing space in abuilding. Benefits to owning the building include having signage onthe building and a dedicated entrance and lobby, as well as morecontrol over expenses such as taxes and utilities and being betterable to recruit and retain workers, Ward says. Businesses will haveto decide if it is more cost-effective to own the property, takinginto account taxes, operating expenses, depreciation andmaintenance to the building, he says.

Ward says one good example of how the program will work was thedeal with Superior Air-Ground Ambulance Service Inc., which hiredthe Alter to develop its new corporate headquarters, a four-story,100,000-sf building in Elmhurst. Superior used similar services towhat Enterprise Solutions will offer and was kind of an impetus forstarting the division, Ward says. The new division will enable theAlter Group to better serve small to medium sized businesses, likeSuperior, and will allow the firm to have the resources required tocontinue to also develop larger projects, he says.