Gallagher insurance mulling $46M expansion of Rolling Meadows HQ

Insurance giant Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. proposed expanding its Rolling Meadows headquarters with a new four-story, $45.6 million building that would house 700 more employees.

The move by the nation’s fourth-largest commercial insurance brokerage hinges on state and local tax incentives, with Gallagher also considering leasing cheaper space near Houston, where the company has 460 employees, according to the Daily Herald.

In 2014, Gallagher paid $13.4 million for the large office tower at 2850 Golf Road in Rolling Meadows, Crain’s reported at the time. It had been in Itasca for 26 years. The same year, the state awarded the company nearly $21 million in incentives spread over a decade to remain in Illinois as part of its move to the new campus.

Gallagher then spent some $100 million renovating the 11-story, 315,000-square-foot building.

The firm now employees about 1,500 people at the Rolling Meadows site, which also includes a separate two-story building for its information technology and mail departments, according to the Daily Herald. The new structure would go on a 352,000-square-foot parcel and feature conference rooms, “huddle rooms” and phone rooms workstations.

Gallagher has applied for a county tax incentive that would reduce its property tax assessment for 12 years. The company also is seeking more incentives from the state.

Construction could begin next year and be finished by the end of 2021, the company said.

A report by JLL said office properties in the area are in demand, with suburban vacancy rates at their lowest around O’Hare Airport. Rubenstein Partners made a play in the area earlier this year when it bought a stake in the Continental Towers office complex in Rolling Meadows in a deal worth $121.5 million. [Daily Herald] — John O’Brien