JLL Secures $333M in Financing for Zurich North America’s HQ in Suburban Chicago

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

JLL has secured more than $333 million in financing for the new 11-story, 735,000-square-foot, Class A+ suburban Chicago headquarters of Zurich North America, JLL announced Wednesday.

The credit-tenant lease financing will be used to acquire 40 acres of land in Schaumburg and develop the building, which reportedly will be the largest BTS, single-tenant net-leased project in North America in 2014.

“The debt service payments under the loan increase annually in conjunction with the lease payments,” JLL managing director Bill Cavagnaro told Commercial Property Executive. “The loan does not require standard reserve funds due to the bond-type nature of the lease. The loan is fixed-rate, interest-only during construction and fully amortizing thereafter.”

It was also announced Wednesday that Stonemont Financial Group, of Atlanta, will be the building’s landlord.

Clayco, of Chicago, is the project’s turnkey developer and design/builder; Goettsch Partners, Chicago, is designing the headquarters core and shell, along with a parking facility; and the Chicago office of CannonDesign is the interior architect, Zurich announced last fall.

JLL had started working with Zurich in January 2013, with a team under the direction of managing director John Musgjerd. JLL provided strategic planning; site selection; owner, architect, developer and design builder selection; capital structure; state and local incentives; and construction project management services.

Managing director Meredith O’Connor provided direction on incentives, and managing directors Bruce Westwood-Booth and Guy Ponticiello provided capital markets expertise, along with Cavagnaro and executive vice president Brion Haist, who executed the credit tenant leasing financing. Managing director Jim Plummer and senior vice president Jerry Riordan led tenant-rep efforts.

The site, at the corner of Meacham Road and I-90, was formerly part of the larger Motorola Solutions property, a Zurich North America spokesperson told CPE.

The new building will accommodate the 2,500 employees and contractors who work from the insurer’s current offices on American Lane in Schaumburg. Zurich also has an office in downtown Chicago.

Work has begun on the building, which is scheduled for completion in fall 2016, according to the Zurich spokesperson.

Chicago’s suburbs have undergone “a flurry of sales and lease renewals in the first quarter of 2014,” Westwood-Booth said in a release. In addition to the Zurich North America transaction, he added, “IBM recently renewed its 63,000-square-foot lease here, and Central Park of Lisle I & II sold for $168 per square foot.”