Inland Moves Headquarters to Downers Grove

Inland Real Estate Group is trading its longtime Oak Brook headquarters for a newly renovated tower in Downers Grove.

The Oak Brook-based investment and asset management firm signed a roughly 140,000-square-foot lease at 3050 Highland Parkway in Downers Grove, relocating from the three-building campus it owns at 2901–2907 Butterfield Road. The 16.5-year deal will give Inland more than three floors in the eight-story, 259,274-square-foot building, according to a press release from Inland and from broker JLL, first reported by Crain’s.

At the same time, Highland Park-based GTZ Properties is under contract to buy Inland’s 27-acre Oak Brook headquarters site and demolish it as part of a retail redevelopment anchored by a 225,000-square-foot Amazon store, GTZ managing principal Mitch Goltz confirmed to the publication. Ashley Furniture is also slated to anchor the project.

The Inland campus sits next to the 17-acre Oak Brook Office Center complex that GTZ acquired out of foreclosure last summer for $9 million. Together, the properties would form a sprawling retail corridor remake along Butterfield Road — a stretch village leaders have long targeted for commercial reinvention.

“This project will remove a lot of second- and third-tier office space and bring a big shot in the arm to this stretch of Butterfield Road,” Goltz told the outlet, noting he plans to present details to the Village of Oak Brook’s board next week. He declined to disclose the purchase price for Inland’s property.

An Inland spokesperson confirmed the company is under contract to sell. Amazon and Ashley Furniture representatives did not comment, according to the publication.

Inland’s move is emblematic of companies upgrading into newer, amenity rich space, as they push for in-person collaboration, according to the publication, buoying select properties even as suburban office vacancy hovers near record highs. Inland Real Estate Group is led by CEO Tony Chereso.

The landlord at 3050 Highland Parkway is a venture led by billionaire investor Marvin Herb, the former Coca-Cola bottler whose Barrington-based firm has owned the property — part of Highland Landmark Office Park — since shortly after its 2002 completion. The building is undergoing a comprehensive renovation of common areas and amenities. Inland will also take over property management as part of the lease.

The tenant replaces space vacated in recent years by JPMorgan Chase and Hub Group.

— Eric Weilbacher