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JLL to Use New Offices as a Showcase

CHICAGO—Corporate real estate is a big part of JLL's business, and what better way to attract clients than show off its own redesigned global headquarters?

By Brian J. Rogal | brianjrogal | | Updated on April 13, 2016

 

chi-jll-aon-center-lobby-sitting (2) The new two-story reception area at JLL’s global HQ now has a full-time concierge and the Aon Center’s first internal office staircase.
CHICAGO— JLL won’t finish the renovation of its 200,000 square foot global headquarters in Chicago’s Aon Center until 2017, but company officials say they have already learned a great deal about managing such projects, and intend to use that knowledge to help its corporate real estate clients. “We expect to get a steady stream of visitors,” Ed Nolan , senior vice president for workplace strategy at JLL, told GlobeSt.com last week during a visit to the Aon Center. And many of these curious sightseers will be from corporations planning updates for their own headquarters. Several top real estate firms plan to use their own offices as a showcase for corporate real estate. But one aspect which sets JLL’s effort off from most others, Nolan added, is the scale of the project. About 1,200 people currently work in the six-floor Aon space, and by 2020, JLL plans to expand its headquarters workforce to 1,500. To renovate such a space over several years requires a detailed stacking plan with a lot of moving parts, just the type of plan needed by other global firms. One of Nolan’s big takeaways from the ongoing renovation is that you can never have enough input from employees. As reported in GlobeSt.com, JLL undertook a massive, multilayered effort to solicit employees’ ideas for the redesign. Company-wide town hall meetings, surveys, small working groups and personal interviews, among other strategies, were all used to make sure everyone had a forum where they felt comfortable.           And now that several floors are done, many employees have already entered the post-occupancy phase, and Nolan wants to conduct even more surveys to better understand how the new technology and space is used “long after the newness and ‘cool factor’ had worn off.” That way the company can stay ahead of trends or whenever the needs of its workforce changes. By 2017, not only will the entire office space be finished, but so will the company’s new premier gathering space, the two-story Club. Like all common areas, it will be WiFi-enabled and give all employees opportunities to work solo, in groups, or just socialize. And Nolan expects that the impact felt by JLL’s visitors is “going to get more powerful.”        

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