Nicor unit moving HQ to new Naperville location
(Crain's) — A Nicor Inc. subsidiary that sells warranties for home heating and cooling systems is moving to a Naperville office building where the company will combine its headquarters and call center operations.
Nicor National, which changed its name in September from Nicor Services, has leased 65,483 square feet on the first two levels of the East West Corporate Center at 1751-1771 W. Diehl Road, just off Interstate 88 and State Route 59.
The deal marks the second-largest office lease this year in the suburbs, excluding renewals, after DeVry Inc.'s lease of roughly 225,000 square feet in two separate locations in Downers Grove and Oak Brook, according to data from Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
Nicor National is to move its call center to the building next spring from Geneva, where it leases just less than 30,000 square feet at 1950 S. Batavia Ave.
Later in the year and into 2011, Nicor National plans to move its headquarters and corporate staff from a Naperville location at 2019 Corporate Lane, where the company occupies 30,000 square feet of office space and 10,000 square feet of warehouse space, a spokesman says.
The company signed a 12-year lease in the East West Corporate Center with expansion options. Additional terms couldn't be determined. The firm will be the largest tenant in the four-level, 227,978-square-foot complex, where asking rents are listed at $14 per square foot on a net basis, according to real estate data provider CoStar Group Inc.
The lease with Nicor National brings the complex to 91% leased, says Brian Lauck, a regional director with Bala Cynwyd, Pa.-based Keystone Property Group Inc., which bought the complex for $16.75 million in October 2006 when it was just 60% leased.
"We're right where we wanted to be. Leasing has been pretty consistent. Obviously, this is a big one," says Mr. Lauck, who declined to provide lease terms. "This is a great deal for us. We're getting a good-credit tenant that's had a pattern of growth. . . .I would expect to see them grow more."
Keystone was represented in the lease by Chicago-based Jones Lang, while Nicor National was represented by Rosemont-based Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler Inc.
Nicor National began expanding into additional states a few years ago and now operates in Illinois and 14 other states, the spokesman says. The firm, whose finances aren't disclosed, employs about 200 people at its call center and has about 140 people in its Naperville office. Part of the rationale for the move is to have all its employees together, and to have room for future growth, the spokesman says.
Parent company Nicor Inc. is headquartered at 1844 Ferry Road in Naperville, to the north across I-88 from the East West Corporate Center.
