Pediatrics association moving from Elk Grove to Itasca
The American Academy of Pediatrics plans to move next year into a newly constructed, $50 million headquarters in Itasca, leaving behind its Elk Grove Village home of 30 years.
Chicago-based The Opus Group will construct the new 183,000-square-foot, five-story office building on 11.15 acres that AAP acquired in the Hamilton Lakes Business Park. It will house AAP's 480 employees with room for growth of up to 675 employees over the next 10 years, said Roberta Bosak, director of the department of human resources and administrative services.
"We looked at several properties in a small radius around O'Hare, including the suburbs and the city, because we needed more space for meetings and access to nearby hotels, such as the Westin," Bosak said.
The association, which includes 64,000 pediatrician members, also has a federal advocacy office in Washington, D.C., and looks forward to additional growth.
"We loved our building and campus in Elk Grove but we have outgrown it and needed better connectivity and technology to serve our members and for our meetings," she said.
The building will feature 10-foot floor-to-ceiling windows with colored vertical exterior fins to reduce solar heat gain, and a two-story dual entrance lobby serving as the main entrance and a central hub for AAP's conference center and visitor area.
With workspaces tailored for each of the numerous departments within the organization, the office will have areas for educational training, video recording of practice procedures and demonstrations, conferences, outdoor meetings and historical archival storage and display with documents dating back decades to show the legacy of pediatrics throughout the eras.
"Many important factors go into site selection and we're confident that the location they ultimately selected will provide for an easy transition and will serve the company well into the future," Bryan Farquhar, senior manager, real estate development, Opus Development Co. LLC, said in a statement.