German engineering and technology company Bosch has decided to sell a facility and instead lease space for one its local offices in the western suburbs.
The company will lease about 110,000 square feet total between Oakbrook Terrace Tower and an industrial building on the property, Crain’s reported.
Next spring, about 350 employees from the automotive aftermarket division will move from a property Bosch owns at 2800 S. 25th Ave. in Broadview to four floors in the 31-story tower at 1 Tower Lane in Oakbrook Terrace. The company plans to begin shopping its property in west suburban Broadview in the next few months.
Bosch will become the biggest tenant in the building owned by New York-based Blackstone Group, which bought Oakbrook Terrace Tower as part of a $3.3 billion portfolio acquisition from GE Capital Real Estate in 2015. The 792,000-square-foot tower recently lost a major tenant, Ferrara Candy Company, to the massive Old Post Office at 433 West Van Buren Street.
Bosch’s move shows companies are still betting on Oakbrook Terrace Tower and the Oak Brook area, despite others deciding to leave the suburbs for the city. Tenants that choose to stay in the suburbs benefit from access to highways and public transportation, amenities like Oakbrook Center mall and more predictable property taxes in DuPage County, according to Crain’s.
Gerlingen, Germany-based Bosch employs more than 1,400 people in the Chicago area. Its employees are split among the Broadview facility, a power tools unit in Mount Prospect, and a Rexroth industrial drives and controllers operation in Hoffman Estates.
[Crain’s] — Brianna Kelly