Editorial: Zurich's new campus stands out in growing field of suburban business developments
The suburbs took a couple of conspicuous blows in the past year with announcements that major corporations like Motorola Solutions and McDonald's would be moving their headquarters - and thousands of jobs - to downtown Chicago.
They struck back just as noticeably this week with the opening of Zurich North America's spectacular new facility and campus in Schaumburg, a bold statement of the suburbs' enduring viability for attracting and serving the employment and lifestyle needs of a 21st century workforce.
When McDonald's and Motorola Solutions announced plans to move to Chicago, much was made of the city's appeal to skilled millennial employees. Zurich's $400 million project in a corner of the parcel Motorola Solutions vacated shows the suburbs can be equally attractive to young professionals.
Its highly sophisticated 11-story office building is not just energy efficient - winning the highest certification from the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design - but it also features a wealth of amenities intended to attract and keep the best employees. It has landscaping with more than 600 trees and 13 acres of natural savanna plantings, a wellness center for the company's 3,000 workers and expanded food options in a large, sunlit cafeteria that looks out onto walking trails and fountains.
As impressive as it is, Zurich's opening isn't the only evidence of high-profile commercial faith in the suburbs.
The employment-software company Paylocity committed to a 309,000-square-foot lease in one of the Schaumburg towers Zurich is vacating as part of its move. The village of Grayslake and developer Alter Group are working on an $818 million, 641-acre mixed-use project. Earlier this year, Sunstar Americas completed its 302,000-square-foot international headquarters off the Jane Addams Tollway in Schaumburg, and developer IDI Gazeley, with spec buildings under construction in Bolingbrook and Joliet, plans a $25 million office-manufacturing complex in Antioch. Similar commitments are coming throughout the suburbs from companies like McShane Cos., Catamaran Corp., Sunstar, Valent BioSciences Corp. and more.
Such projects recognize the unique advantages of locating in the suburbs for companies as well as for employees - including strong property values, diverse housing opportunities, a coordinated transportation network, high-quality schools close to equally high-quality higher education opportunities and a highly skilled employee population of all ages, including, yes, those coveted millennials and their young families.
Of course, it is something to regret whenever the suburbs a prominent corporate citizen, but Zurich's opening, along with a growing field of other high-profile business developments, reminds us that we have - and will continue to have - much to celebrate.