CHICAGO—Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp. has just moved its headquarters, but unlike many suburban firms, it decided to stay in the suburbs. Company employees celebrated the grand opening of its new Downers Grove headquarters on Aug. 22. More than 125 employees, area business professionals and government officials attended the event. The new 23,000-square-foot space in Executive Towers I at 1431 Opus Pl., is larger than the firm's previous headquarters in nearby Lombard, and can accommodate the growing lender's nationwide business.
“Our headquarters had been at its Lombard location since 2008, so we wanted to stay close by and not disrupt the staff we've built up here,” Paul Lueken, chief executive officer of DKMC, tells GlobeSt.com. “The move to Downers Grove took us less than three miles. Though we didn't focus on specific cities in our search, it's a definite perk that downtown Downers Grove is a great location with popular dining and shopping options that our staff appreciate. The majority of our operations employees live in the suburbs and work at our headquarters, but some who reside in Chicago are based at our Erie Street branch downtown in the city. So much of our business is electronic that we have the luxury of hiring and hosting talent outside of our headquarters location when it makes sense.”
Executive Towers I is a class B building built in the 1980s, but the owner, like many in the suburbs, has updated the interior using modern design concepts that encourage collaboration. It features private and team offices, an open-concept kitchen and dining/gathering area, two conference rooms, a dedicated training room, extra workspaces for visitors, whiteboard walls, a ping pong table and HD TVs.
“The previous tenant was a mobile app company that had created a modern, collaborative layout with a fun vibe,” Lueken says. “Even though we're in a more traditional industry, the space was a great fit for our lean and nimble business culture.”
And the company needed a larger space. The new headquarters will host more than 100 employees from the firm's loan processing, underwriting, closing, training, information technology, secondary shipping, accounting and human resources departments. DKMC increased its annual loan production from approximately $1.5 billion to $2 billion from 2015 to 2016 and is on pace to add more than a dozen branches nationwide in 2017. It already has branch offices located throughout the Chicago region, including the one downtown, and in 17 states.
“It's a happier, more productive place to come into every day and a great investment in the employees who support the company and our customers across the country,” Lueken says.
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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.
