CHICAGO—When the Chicago office of Studley washired by the Big Ten Conference near the end of2010 to help think through its real estate needs, ExecutiveManaging Director Robert Sevim knew it was a bigjob. The conference had been in their Park Ridge headquarters at1500 W. Higgins Rd. for more than 20 years, but had outgrown thesmall, roughly 25,000-square-foot building, and could have optedfor any number of solutions including renovation, expansion, orselling it and renting a new space, or developing a newheadquarters from scratch.

“They didn't necessarily have all the answers,” Sevim says, butduring a six-month strategic planning process, “we looked at everypossible solution.” And although many companies have recentlydecided to leave the suburbs and settle downtown, for the Big Tenthis possibility was dismissed rather early.

“There are solutions that satisfy your real estate needs, andthere are solutions that satisfy your hiring needs,” he explains.Google and others that have chosen to relocatedowntown want to attract a younger set of employees, but the BigTen was not specifically looking for young, tech talent that itneeded to satisfy by providing an urban lifestyle.