CHICAGO—An affiliate of Equus Capital Partners, Ltd., has just acquired Naperville's iconic MetroWest building, located at 55 Shuman Blvd. Equus has a good deal of experience in the local office market, experience that should give it confidence in its newest purchase. It also owns Tallgrass Corporate Center, a 50-acre, class A development in suburban Bolingbrook that lost its anchor tenant in 2004, but was later filled up again and Equus has kept its occupancy level up ever since. And with MetroWest, it has a property that underwent a renovation in 2013 and is already 92% occupied.
Major tenants include Wells Fargo, Dun & Bradstreet, Stanley Convergent Security Solutions and UPM Kymmene, Inc.
"There are no real plans to upgrade tenants since the roster is so strong," Matthew Latimer, a Chicago-based vice president of Equus, tells GlobeSt.com. He oversaw the transaction for the firm. "The Western East-West office submarket has tightened significantly and we see continued demand from tenants for full amenity buildings with great locations, such as MetroWest."
It's a great time to become a Naperville landlord, especially in class A office. The submarket ended the third quarter with a vacancy rate of 17.9%, according to Colliers, and although that was flat from the second quarter, it's still the lowest in the suburbs. And the class A rate is just 13.6%. Furthermore, “no new construction was completed in the Lisle-Naperville market during the third quarter of 2015 and no notable construction is planned or underway.”
And with the 205,282 square foot MetroWest, Equus definitely has one of the more notable suburban properties. Built in 1986, the 10-story office building was designed by renowned architect Helmut Jahn and has a distinctive “N” design. It features a two-story lobby and floor-to-ceiling windows that shed a lot of natural light on the recent cosmetic upgrades and polished steel finishes.
“The property has a higher level of recognition within the metropolitan Chicago than most office buildings in the CBD,” says Latimer. “MetroWest is a highly visible iconic building with great amenities and access to all that Naperville has to offer.”
On-site amenities include a front patio, outdoor putting green, a fitness center, deli, conference room, and about 598 surface parking spaces and a 24-stall underground executive parking garage, giving the building a parking ratio of roughly 3.2 spaces per 1,000 square feet.
Paul Lundstedt, Dan Deuter, Tom Sitz, and Cody Huntermark of CBRE represented the seller, a joint venture between Franklin Partners, LLC and Bixby Bridge Capital, LLC.
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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.
