CHICAGO—Venta Airwasher, Inc. has just completed a lease with MB Real Estate to relocate its North American headquarters from northwest suburban Mount Prospect to a historic building at 300 N. Elizabeth St. in Chicago's West Loop. The neighborhood has become famous for attracting high-tech corporate giants like Google, but beneath the radar, smaller companies like Venta are also moving in to increase their appeal to the modern workforce.
“They are expanding their sales team and wanted to be closer to their growing employee base,” MB Real Estate assistant vice president Craig McCaw tells GlobeSt.com. McCaw represented the Germany-based international humidifier and air purifier manufacturer in their search for a new headquarters. “They did not consider suburban properties.”
The building was bought by Sterling Bay Cos. last year as part of the Fulton West portfolio. The developer restored Venta's new 10,473 square-foot office into a well-lit, creative loft space. Several weeks ago, Sterling announced it was ready to take an abandoned section of the Fulton West portfolio and transform it into a speculative office building of nine stories and 290,000 square feet.
The Chicago-based developer also bought the former Fulton Market Cold Storage warehouse at 1000 W. Fulton, just several blocks from Fulton West, in 2012 and renovated it into a 535,000 square-foot office building that Google will use as a regional headquarters. This and other Sterling Bay projects have already helped transform the neighborhood from an industrial zone mostly dedicated to food production and distribution and into a high-end office community.
“Venta Airwasher is eager to join the ranks of exciting companies like Uber and Google, who are also relocating to the meatpacking district in the West Loop,” says Barbara Straubenger, president of Venta Airwasher. “The expansion of the dining and entertainment scene in this area makes this the perfect location for welcoming international partners and guests, allowing us to show them some of the best Chicago has to offer.”
“We are seeing some smaller headquarters offices relocating to the city and the larger headquarters are, at the very least, opening downtown branches,” says McCaw.
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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.
