Opening on horizon for apartment building, Boler Co. HQ at former Motorola site
With construction viewed as an essential industry and permitted to continue this spring, the first residents of a new 260-unit apartment building on the former Motorola Solutions campus in Schaumburg are expected to start moving in next month.
And the nearby state-of-the-art headquarters of the Boler Co. should be ready in early November for its employees' relocation from Itasca, as long as no lingering stay-at-home orders prevent it.
Though construction hasn't been slowed, the work on the Element at Veridian apartment building has included significant internal controls due to the pandemic, said Bob Burk, managing partner of UrbanStreet Group LLC.
Burk's company is the master developer of the 225-acre Veridian development on the former Motorola site and the builder of the Element apartment building.
Construction of the eight-story, 180,000-square-foot Boler headquarters remains on the same schedule announced in March 2019, according to Jerry Riordan, senior vice president of project developer JLL.
While some have begun to speculate the pandemic will cause permanent change to the office market, Riordan said speculation is all it is.
Burk said the Boler Co. building is a prime example of the fundamental shift back to high-quality office space the market had been experiencing. Saying that the pandemic will have an influence — which is likely — is a long way from being able to predict what it will be, Burk added.
“I don't believe we're going to see the net result for a long time,” he said.
While some companies may have discovered their office space isn't as essential as previously thought, others are seeing their efficiency reduced as a result of work-from-home requirements, Burk said. It's only human nature to want to work and collaborate face to face, he added.
Though the pendulum is likely to swing after the pandemic, Burk said he doesn't expect extreme changes.
Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said it will take about a year to recognize any major, long-term changes to the local market.
On the residential side of things, developer D.R. Horton's plan for a 260-unit row home development on 20 acres along Algonquin Road could be ready to start construction very soon, with its first residents likely moving in around the fall of 2021, Frank said.
A 110-unit assisted-living and memory care facility to be run by Florida-based Harbor Retirement Development LLC is also in the process of shoring up its financing and obtaining permits, he added.
Burk said the next big project on the former Motorola site is the design of The District, a 30-acre area at the eastern end of the development that would ultimately include 200,000 square feet of commercial space and about 400 residences — with approximately 250 in its initial phase.