CHICAGO—The suburbs of this city are filled with office properties that tenants have abandoned over the years, but some specialists in value-added work remain committed to reviving some of the more visible buildings. Seven month ago, for example, GlenStar Properties LLC and Walton Street Capital LLC bought Continental Towers, a 911,341-square-foot, three-tower office complex in Rolling Meadows just off the I-90 expressway. The partners embarked on an $8 million capital campaign in order to upgrade and reposition the buildings and have also just completed seven leases with a total of 67,721-square-feet.
"The goal is to get the complex fully leased over the next few years," says GlenStar's Michael Klein. "We are doing the redevelopment in order to achieve our goal." Currently, tenants occupy 62% of the space. In the summer of 2012, the complex was less than half full.
In the largest of the recent leases, Ceannate Corp., a student loan collector, expanded by almost 50% at the property, taking an additional 23,682-square-feet, bringing its total to 74,340-square-feet. Craig Cassell and Jay Stewart with Cushman & Wakefield represented Ceannate.
Chicago-based GlenStar was founded in 2003 and specializes in value-added properties. And Walton has repositioned many assets all over the US. In 2006, for example, GlenStar bought the 821,000-square-foot Presidents Plaza at 8600-8700 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. for $129 million and invested about $10 million in upgrades. In August 2012, GlobeSt.com reported that GlenStar had signed leases for about 272,000-square-feet of space in the previous year, boosting that occupancy rate to 80%.
Other new leases at Continental Towers include:
- Rational USA, developers of professional cooking appliances for large and commercial kitchens, signed a lease for 18,384-square-feet and will move from its current Schaumburg location at the end of this month. Dominic Carbonari and Jim Rose with Jones Lang LaSalle represented Rational.
- United Chemi-Con signed on for 12,002-square-feet. The manufacturer and supplier of aluminum electrolytic capacitors will move from 9801 Higgins Rd. in Rosemont where it had the same amount of space. Studley's Joe Arnstein represented UCC in the transaction.
- Chicago Title took an additional 1,245-square-feet – bringing its total space at Continental to 7,646-square-feet – and extended its long-term lease. Jean Bottiani Thompson with Orion Realty Group and Bill Main with CBIZ Gibraltar Real Estate arranged the deal on behalf of Chicago Title.
- GreatStreet Realty Partners renewed its 3,406-square-foot lease.
- Zhone Technologies, a provider of telecommunications networking equipment, signed on for 1,435-square-feet of space for a new, Midwest sales office. Podolsky Circle Corfac's John Homsher arranged this lease.
- Biotrition renewed its lease for 1,166-square-feet.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
