A science-focused startup with Northwestern University ties is moving into billionaire Joe Mansueto’s redevelopment in Humboldt Park.
NuMat Technologies signed a lease for about 62,000 square feet at 1334 North Kostner Avenue that Morningstar founder Mansueto and IBT Group redeveloped in the West Side neighborhood, Crain’s reported. NuMat will relocate its headquarters from the Illinois Science & Technology Park in Skokie.
The building is known as the Terminal, a $50 million redevelopment of multiple Humboldt Park warehouses carried out by IBT and Mansueto. NuMat’s new space will be about three times the size of its Skokie office, making the 10-year-old company the largest tenant in the property, which IBT and Mansueto bought in 2020 .
CBRE’s executive vice president David Saad negotiated the lease on NuMat’s behalf, while Doug Hayes and Zach Pruitt of Cawley Chicago oversee leasing at the Terminal.
NuMat will join quantum computing startup EeroQ, which became the Terminal’s first tenant with a small lease signed at the end of 2021.
The NuMat lease is good news for IBT as the Humboldt Park area hasn’t been attracting as many new science-focused tenants in need of lab and research space as Fulton Market, where Trammell Crow has had success drawing some big leases to its lab and office property Fulton Labs.
NuMat was founded in 2013 by Northwestern graduate Ben Hernandez and NU chemistry professor Omar Farha. The firm will likely build out office, research and manufacturing space in its new office. According to the company’s website, NuMat is a “chemistry design company” that assists the chemical, industrial, electronics and life-sciences sectors.
The company has signed contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and Versum Materials, which produces specialty gasses and chemicals for computer-chip manufacturers.
While a win for IBT, the move also marks a loss for Chicago-based Singerman Real Estate, which bought the ISTP property at 8025 and 8045 Lamon Avenue in Skokie for $75 million in 2021 when the property was 81 percent leased.
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