Homebuilder proposes development for Naperville office site near I-88
Unlike many of the corporate complexes along the I-88 corridor, one office building in Naperville is in a relatively remote area.
The Illinois Health and Hospital Association has used the brick building, surrounded by trees, for its offices. The site is less than a mile west of the intersection of Warrenville and Naperville roads.
In a sign of the post-pandemic times, the group has decided to sell the property, and a homebuilder wants to turn it into an enclave of townhouses.
M/I Homes is looking to develop 64 single-family townhouses on the roughly 12-acre property. The area to the west is owned by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County.
A public hearing for the proposed project is scheduled for Feb. 19, before Naperville’s planning and zoning commission. M/I Homes is asking the city to rezone the property, among other requests.
The existing, three-story office building is roughly 800 feet north of Warrenville Road.
The lack of visibility, the remote parking field and inaccessibility to amenities puts the building at a “competitive disadvantage” to other office properties in the corridor, reads a petition to the city.
“Offices with visibility along I-88, Warrenville Road, and Diehl Road are no exception to the surge of office vacancies and with that, the Property faces its own set of unique challenges in terms of marketability,” it states.
The Illinois Health and Hospital Association, meanwhile, signed a lease agreement in November with Northern Illinois University for IHA to relocate to NIU’s Naperville campus.
“The move is a result of the fact that IHA’s decision to increase its staff’s remote work opportunities has led to the corresponding need for less physical office space,” Paris Ervin, a spokesperson for IHA, said in a statement.
IHA will occupy space at NIU on the second floor at 1120 E. Diehl Road, which is about 1.5 miles from its current location.
The build-out is proceeding, Ervin said, and IHA anticipates moving in late spring after construction is completed.
“We are excited to remain in the Naperville community and look forward to moving into our new space,” Ervin said.
Near the north side of I-88, another homebuilder, Pulte, developed the Naper Commons subdivision adjacent to the Danada Forest Preserve.
M/I is “cognizant of the ongoing shift in the suburban office market” and seeks to rezone the IHA property to facilitate a development that will “aim to serve and support the corridor — not take away from it,” its petition says.
The proposal, it argues, “ultimately supports the long-term viability of the I-88 Corridor as an employment center by way of helping to balance the supply and demand of available offices.”
M/I Homes also proposes a 15-foot native planting buffer zone as a transition between development and forest preserve property.