"Millbrook Business Center was an experiment for us," says Harvey Miller, managing director at Millbrook Properties. "The real estate team we put together went out and showed us the possibilities."

Bringing over 20 years of activity to a close at the 72-acre Millbrook Business Center, the brothers will have erected seven buildings there when they finish a 65,000-sf speculative office structure that is due to break ground next year. Just a few weeks ago, Millbrook signed a $20-million build-to-suit lease with Plexus Corp. and Zenith Corp agreed to move its corporate headquarters to the center around the same time. Millbrook Business Center, located in southern Lake County north of Chicago, also houses the former headquarters of Quill Corp., the firm the brothers founded.

While Mr. Miller would not say how much Staples paid for the company, the figure is reputed to be in the $600 million range. "We were paid Staples stock in consideration for Quill," says Miller, who, along with his brothers, sold the company in 1998. "We have divested ourselves of a large amount that stock and now have substantial amounts of cash."

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