Owner of Chase Bank Building in Mount Prospect plans technology center

The landlord of the Chase Bank Building in downtown Mount Prospect said he has major plans for the six-story, 97,191-square-foot building.

Gus Dahleh, who bought the property at 111 East Busse Ave. in 2014, said he intends to reinvent the building as a technology center.

"What we're trying to do is change the theme of the building to the 111 Tech Center. We're trying to drive some technology companies to the building and some architectural and financial services firms as well," he said.

The transformation will involve extensive renovations, including adding a fitness center and updating the main lobby and common areas.

Mount Prospect officials said they look forward to the changes, which they hope will lower the 41 percent vacancy rate at the building.

"To the degree we can get a couple hundred people again occupying that building that want to go to lunch in the downtown, want to do their shopping downtown, that's a huge win for us," said Mount Prospect Village Manager Michael Cassady.

Dahleh said he is working with leasing broker Cushman & Wakefield to market the space. And the village is helping market the space through its website.

Already, Dahleh said, he has signed up such tenants as Baldridge & Associates Structural Engineering Inc., Sedgwick Advisors, Chicago Psychological Health Center, Good Health to You Massage Center and Resource Insurance Advisors Inc.

Dahleh said he owns and manages about 1 million square feet of real estate in the Chicago area, including commercial office buildings and retail centers.

He said what attracted him to the property was the rooftop cellular antenna leases, the certainty of Chase being the anchor tenant and the building's central location near the Metra station.

The building's rooftop contains antennas belonging to AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint assigned to Vertical Bridge of Boca Raton, Florida, under a 50-year agreement.

Chase Bank occupies about a third of the building.

"It's one of their busiest branches in the Chicagoland market," Dahleh said.