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WOODRIDGE, IL-EN Engineering, a partnership between Nicor Inc. and A. Epstein & Sons International Inc. of Chicago, has renewed its lease and expanded its space by 7,500 sf at MidPoint Corporate Center, 7135 Janes Ave.

MidPoint II LLC is the investor/owner of the property. The long-term lease renewal for 30,495 sf was negotiated by Michael Fortuna, a senior vice president at Grubb & Ellis who arranged the original lease back in 2003. EN Engineering, originally was a division of Epstein, an architectural, engineering and construction firm. The partnership with NICOR is now a joint venture that provides engineering design solutions for the oil/pipeline gas industry.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Trammell Crow's Corporate Suburban review of office space for first quarter 2006 lists the average asking price per sf in the Eastern section of the East-West Corridor if $21.31. Laurence Morgan, an office broker at Studley, tells GlobeSt.com that in logistics definitely influences the west suburban office market. "Access to major thoroughfares is important. However the labor supply is critical as well. We have found that approximately 20% of the suburban workforce comes from the East-West market."