Navistar eyes moving to former Alcatel-Lucent property in Lisle

Warrenville-based Navistar International Corp. said Wednesday it has been eyeing property in Lisle that was once occupied by Lucent Technologies.

A spokesman declined to provide specifics or any possible price tag. It could take about six months for a decision to be finalized, said Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley.

"We are looking to study our needs and these are challenging economic times," Wiley said. "When an opportunity like this comes up, we'll take a look."

Navistar, which has about 16,000 workers worldwide, houses about 1,500 workers in a building in Warrenville. The Lisle campus would provide room to add more departments, he said.

In April 2008, Alcatel-Lucent said it had intended to sell its Lisle facility, which is roughly 600,000 square feet. The campus opened in 2001 and was connected across Naperville Road with other buildings on the Naperville side

The campus once housed about 10,500 Lucent workers during the bustling technology heyday in the early 2000s. But the dot-com bubble burst and Lucent began laying off thousands of workers. Lucent then merged with Alcatel and its headquarters was shifted to Paris.

In June, Navistar said it made "significant reductions" to its selling, general and administrative expenses during what it termed "the most challenging economic conditions in more than 45 years."

Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Mary Ward declined to comment.