“We crawl, then we walk, then we run”: Somerset to start with small tenants at former AT&T HQ overhaul

Somerset Development is aiming small as it looks to breathe new life into the former AT&T headquarters in Hoffman Estates.

The New Jersey-based developer plans to target tenants looking for 3,000 square feet or less as it embarks on its efforts to fill the 1.6 million-square-foot complex next to the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, according to Crain’s.

Renderings of Bell Works Chicagoland

Somerset President Ralph Zucker said his firm will start by targeting small tenants with prebuilt office suites and co-working space to build a buzz that will eventually draw the larger tenants.

“We crawl, then we walk, then we run,” Zucker told Crain’s. He said Somerset is willing to bring in tenants with no long-term leases and let them use the space rent free until the building fills up.

In all, the $200 million Bell Works Chicagoland project will have 1.2 million square feet of offices, 60,000 square feet of retail space, 550 apartments and townhouses and a 150-room hotel on the vacant 150-acre campus that Somerset bought in March for $21 million.

Somerset executed a similar plan at the original Bell Works in Holmdel, New Jersey, overhauling the 2 million-square-foot former Bell Labs campus and bringing its office space to 90 percent occupancy.

The AT&T campus is one of several former corporate headquarters that have been a drag on the suburban office market, remnants left behind in the recent trend of corporate relocations to Downtown. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien