Gallagher to expand corporate campus onto former Meadows Club site
Insurance giant Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. plans to add more brick and mortar to its sprawling corporate campus in Rolling Meadows for employee meetings, training sessions and events.
City documents show the single-story, 33,760-square-foot conference center is proposed for development on the site of the demolished Meadows Club banquet hall and event space. Gallagher acquired the property at 2950 Golf Road for $8 million in 2021, according to Cook County property records.
The new building will be attached to the company’s 11-story, 302,000-square-foot office tower headquarters, which the firm poured more than $100 million to renovate in 2017.
City council members Tuesday night are set to consider preliminary, first reading approval of zoning changes that would authorize the redevelopment. The planning and zoning commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the requested relief on Aug. 5.
In their endorsement of the project, city planning department staff labeled the old Meadows Club property as “deteriorated” and said expanding the Gallagher campus is directly aligned with long-term planning goals for the Golf Road corridor. The area between Golf and the Jane Addams Tollway is home to other large corporate campuses, including medical supplier School Health Corp. and engine manufacturer Weichai America Corp.
A so-called “sub-area” plan was amended in the city’s comprehensive plan in April, and recommends redevelopment of the Meadows Club property and the former Meadows Corporate Center site, 2550 Golf Road. Gallagher acquired and tore down a 10-story, 270,000-square-foot tower there in 2023.
“The city should support the unified development of the Arthur J. Gallagher corporate campus through coordinated site planning, integrated design elements and shared amenities,” the document states.
The new conference center would contain rooms that vary in capacity from 160 to 1,200 seats. About 60% of the facility’s use would be for regional employees, and 40% for local employees, Gallagher officials said.
A provision of the pending city ordinance would allow the company to lease the conference center up to 20 days a year to third-party users.
Plans also call for a lawn on the west side of the proposed building, a concrete patio with a canopy, a small food truck zone near the building entrance, and an updated parking lot layout.
City officials and Gallagher brass are negotiating the sale of a small, city-owned parcel at 5550 Apollo Drive, though current plans would essentially leave what is now a portion of a parking lot untouched.
Construction is scheduled to start before March 2027 and be complete a year later.
cplacek@dailyherald.com