A new tenant is being sought for one of the entry portals into the village.
McGraw-Hill will be leaving or significantly reducing its footprint in Burr Ridge when its lease expires on its existing site in summer 2018.
Bob Schmude, project manager for In Site Real Estate, which handles the leasing for the office building that McGraw-Hill calls home at 1333 Burr Ridge Parkway, said negotiations are in the works with several businesses interested in the 150,000-square-foot site near Interstate 55 and Bridewell Drive. He said millions of dollars will be spent to revamp the McGraw-Hill building for its next tenant or tenants, creating larger conference areas, combined office work spaces and improved amenities.
Schmude did not reveal the names of any potential tenants, but said they are larger companies interested in being in Burr Ridge. He said a larger company that would take all or nearly all of the office space is the preferred route to replace McGraw-Hill, which leases 120,000 feet of space in the building.
“We don’t want seven different tenants,” Schmude told members of the village’s Plan Commission Monday. “We would prefer one, possibly two.”
Schmude and attorney Scott Day, representing In Site, said that the office space market has changed and that more parking than is required under village regulations is needed for premiere tenants. The McGraw-Hill building has 565 spaces. In Site would like to increase that to 817 spaces by lessening the size of existing parking spaces by 6 inches, providing parking 20 feet closer to the parcel’s front lot line and using 25 spots land banked for the building when it was first approved.
Village regulations require a minimum of four parking spaces per 1,000 square feet for properties zoned for offices or hotels. Day said closer to six spaces per 1,000 square feet is what top clients are seeking.
“If Burr Ridge wants to have first-class, grade A office space in today’s marketplace, you absolutely have to provide the class A tenants with adequate parking,” Day said. “They won’t go to the buildings without adequate parking. If you want to have your office space in your Burr Ridge Parkway supported by adequate parking, you’ve got to recognize where the marketplace is today, and technology has completely changed the marketplace.”
He said there are more people operating in narrower spaces today, and job-sharing and communal work spaces meaning more employees are on site and need parking.
He said the McGraw-Hill building needs to redone inside and outside for its next tenant. The building was built 27 years ago, and needs for employers have changed, beyond just parking.
“You’ve got offices that have walls. They’re designed for one occupant,” Day said. “You now have people blowing out the walls and putting three occupants in the space” where one person’s office was.
In trying to increase the number of parking spaces at the site by 252, In Site is not only counting on the 25 land-banked spaces on the southwest side of the building, but increasing the number of spaces there to 44.
Plan Commission members noted that the land-banked spaces were allowed long before residential uses were ever considered in the area. Some Burr Ridge Village Center condominium owners would look out and see the building’s newly created parking lot, they noted.
“Those 44 spaces impact residents,” member Mary Proxmarer said.
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If the spots were just created on the southwest side of the building as the land-bank caveat allowed, the 25 spots could have been created, but because the project was back before the village for zoning variances, the entire project, including the land-banked spots, were back before the Plan Commission.
The commission voted to allow parking 20 feet closer to the building’s front lot line, but are recommending to the Village Board that no spots be allowed on the southwest side of the building.
Village Board members will consider potential zoning changes for the McGraw-Hill property at its meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at Village Hall, 7660 County Line Road.
Leslie Bowman, a resident of the 1000 Village Center Drive condominium building, said the proposed parking spaces to the southwest of the McGraw-Hill building would impact residents.
“We use the back of our building a lot as a place to go, as a retreat from the front of the building, which is the Village Center,” Bowman said. “There’s the beautiful pond back there (on the McGraw-Hill property).”
She said adding parking to the southwest of the building would add to water retention issues as the pond already overflows during rains.
Kevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press