Keystone Finishes $10M Office Renovations

CHICAGO-While the local suburban office market is not the rosiest as of late, Keystone Property Group is choosing to “still have rose colored glasses,” according to president Bill Glazer. The company, based in Conshohocken, PA, is finishing up renovations to three office complexes in Bannockburn, IL, Naperville, IL and Schaumburg, IL, says Brian Lauck, regional director of Keystone Property Group.

Glazer acknowledges that the suburban office market can be seen as gloomy. “It is pretty rough out there,” says Brian Lauck, regional director of Keystone Property Group. “There are storm clouds all over the marketplace.” But, tenants are still looking for space and it is usually not a decision made solely on the lowest rental rate. “It is all these other attributes, bells and whistles,” Glazer says. “We really are not selling a commodity.”

Keystone acquired the completely vacant 330,000-sf office building at 231 N. Martingale Rd., Schaumburg, IL for a little more than $17 million in January 2007, as previously reported by GlobeSt.com. The class B property in the Woodfield Corporate Center had been used by IBM as a data center until it was vacated. Since Keystone acquired it, “not one inch in that building” has been leased, Glazer says. But, the building “sits right on the highway with tremendous visibility (and) tremendous access. The only problem is that our timing did not quite work,” Glazer says. “We have a tremendous asset.” Renovations include the addition of architectural glass to the center portions of the building for the first 11 stories and turning space on the top floor, which used to be a data center and storage, into a penthouse with a 13-foot ceiling. The lobby will is also being renovated and Keystone is upgrading the mechanical and elevator systems, he says. The estimated cost of the renovations is $4.2 million, Lauck tells GlobeSt.com. Renovations on the property, which is located in the Northwest submarket, are expected to be complete by July 1.