Elaine Melonides and Dan McCarthy, both with Jones Lang LaSalle, represented HSBC-North America in the lease transaction. Melonides, McCarthy and Meredith O'Connor worked with the state to obtain the incentive package. The incentives are part of the state's Opportunity Returns program, according to statement.

The new Itasca facility is expected to house 2,000 employees. The location was chosen because of the employees, McCarthy says. "The majority of their employees live in the area," he says. HSBC will be consolidating from leased space at three locations in Elmhurst, IL in additions to locations in Wood Dale, IL and Franklin Park, IL, McCarthy says. Additionally, the site at Hamilton Lakes was chosen because it was one of the few parcels of vacant land large enough on which to construct a 300,000-sf facility, and it has "excellent access on and off the highway (Interstate 290)," he says. Hamilton Partners, based in Chicago, will develop the facility. Construction is expected to begin in the fall and be complete in the third quarter of 2010.

A plan was developed in 2004 to consolidate nine of HSBC's facilities in the Chicagoland area into two facilities to improve efficiency, says McCarthy. HSBC moved into a new North American headquarters earlier this spring in Mettawa, IL, near Lake Forest, IL. Four locations were consolidated into the Mettawa facility, including space it was leasing in Prospect Heights, IL for its North American headquarters, McCarthy says. The 550,000-sf build-to-suit facility, at the northwest corner of Town Line Road/Route 60 and Interstate 94 in Mettawa, was also constructed by Hamilton Partners. The facility recently received gold certification from the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, McCarthy tells GlobeSt.com. The company signed a 13-year lease for the facility. HSBC will retain additional facilities in the Chicagoland area, including an operations center in Schaumburg, IL, he says.