Biggest Suburban Lease Signed Since 2010

Acco Brands to move in biggest suburban lease since 2010

By: Ryan Ori January 11, 2012

(Crain's) — In the largest suburban office lease in more than a year, Acco Brands Corp. is moving its headquarters to a 189,092-square-foot office building at Kemper Lakes Business Center in Long Grove.

Acco Brands says it will occupy all of the three-story, Class A building, a 10% increase from its current space. It currently occupies 170,139 square feet at 300 Tower Parkway in north suburban Lincolnshire.

The move to 4 Corporate Drive in the northwest suburb is another boost to the Lake County submarket, which is awash in office space but has experienced a recent rally of sorts.

The submarket had an area-worst 28.1% vacancy rate to end 2011, according to Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. But that was down from 29.7% a year earlier, with help from four leases of more than 100,000 square feet in 2011.

Acco Brands, an office and computer products supplier, plans to move into its new building in March 2013, a company spokesman says. It has about 450 employees in Lincolnshire and 4,000 worldwide.

Terms of the 10-year lease were not disclosed. It was the largest suburban lease since third-quarter 2010 and the largest relocation since first-quarter 2010.

“Big deals are getting done in the suburbs, and there are a lot still in the pipeline,” says Dan McCarthy, a Jones Lang LaSalle senior vice-president who represented pharmacy benefits manager Catalyst Rx in a 106,000-square-foot lease in Bannockburn in the fall. “The large corporations that have the ability to make a commitment right now are locking in some great deals.

“It's the small and mid-size spaces that aren't being absorbed. That's going to have to change for the market to get healthy.”

The headquarters move is not connected to Acco's pending acquisition of packing company MeadWestvaco Corp.'s office supplies business, the Acco spokesman says. Most MeadWestvaco employees in that deal are expected to continue working in Kettering, Ohio, he says.

Acco's move would provide enough extra space to take on additional employees if needed, the spokesman says. The headquarters has executives and employees in sales, marketing, purchasing, sourcing, human relations, legal and corporate communications, he says.

The new building will include engineering and product innovation labs. The Kemper Lakes complex's amenities include a 600-seat auditorium, fitness center, day care and cafeteria. The office buildings are alongside a golf course.

“We're excited about the opportunity to provide our people with a working environment that offers state-of-the-art amenities and the ability to accommodate future business growth,” Acco President Boris Elisman says in a statement. “Our employees will be involved in every stage of the design of our office space, ensuring that we create the ideal environment for collaboration and product innovation.”

The Kemper Lakes campus has four buildings with a combined 1.1 million square feet. Philadelphia-based BPG Properties Ltd. bought it for $30.6 million in 2005, when it was 20% leased, and has done about $35 million in renovation work, says Chicago-based BPG senior vice-president Joseph Neverauskas says.

Kemper Lakes is 62% occupied and will be about 80% leased when Acco moves in, and no leases will expire before then, Mr. Neverauskas says. Two tenants will be moved from the building Acco will occupy to other space in the complex, Mr. Neverauskas says.

“Over the past few years activity has been pretty slow,” Mr. Neverauskas says. “The Chicago suburbs have been stagnant during this recession we've just had.

“I think the market is improving, but until the economy picks up and employment starts to grow, it's still a bumpy road. The key is to have quality product with great amenities.”

Acco was represented by Lou Hall, an executive director in the Chicago office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which also manages the office campus.

BPG was represented by Principal Steve Kling and Senior Vice-president David Florent of Colliers International.

Acco makes a range of office supplies such as planners, laminating equipment, shredders, power adapters, staplers, binders, dry-erase boards and audio-visual equipment. The company markets products in more than 100 countries under names including Swingline, Day-Timer, Kensington, Wilson Jones, Rexel, NOBO and Quartet.