Fifty-year-old jet fuel pipes running from Lemont to O’Hare International Airport are helping Bensenville get a jump in high-tech office development.
“It’s a happy accident of fate that brought together the technology and location we need,” said Greg Hummel, spokesman for Chicago-based U.S. Cellular Corp., which is spearheading a proposed electronics development corridor along Illinois Highway 83 in the Bensenville Industrial Park.
Lemont refineries laid the underground pipeline along Illinois 83 to fuel planes at O’Hare shortly after it became a commercial hub in the 1950s. Decades later, AT&T and MCI used the same undeveloped right of way to run fiber optic cables for high-speed data transmissions.
“By that time, it was hard to find a stretch of open ground in that area, so the fuel pipe right of way was a godsend to them,” said Robert Glees, Bensenville community development director.
Now Bensenville, U.S. Cellular and Real Estate Opportunity Corp. of Lombard are forming a partnership to renovate two obsolete office and warehouse buildings on Illinois 83 between Thorndale Avenue and Tower Lane for use by electronics-oriented firms that need access to fiber optic cables.
U.S. Cellular will move its information systems department to the new Tower Lane Technology Center in early summer, said ROC partner Robert Adducci.
“Proximity to fiber optics is very important for this kind of business because they depend on high-speed data transmissions,” Hummel said.
“There aren’t that many places where fiber optics are that readily available, so it would be good to cluster those types of businesses in areas where they are available. The village understands that, which is why they’re willing to help us do this.”
The Village Board is poised to approve a tax-increment financing (TIF) district for the technology center, which will be located at 1101 and 1141-71 Tower Lane.
ROC and U.S. Cellular are spending $8 million and $2 million, respectively, to gut the two 30-year-old office buildings and retrofit them for computer-intensive operations. U.S. Cellular will move into 1101 Tower Lane, while ROC will lease 1141-71 Tower Lane to similar high-tech businesses.
Several firms have expressed interest in moving into the center, but no deals have been completed, Adducci said.
“We’ve gotten a number of calls from companies asking about this location. Chicago has a huge demand for new, value-oriented office space, and the O’Hare area is one of the strongest markets for back-office and technology space,” he said.
“The proximity to the airport is fantastic, and Route 83 and Thorndale Avenue are nice arteries to the west, north and south, so it’s a great location even without the fiber optic cables. This should prove very lucrative for the village in the long term.”
After the TIF bonds are paid off in 2024, Bensenville should get at least $700,000 per year in new property taxes from the technology center, Hummel estimated.
U.S. Cellular alone will bring in 150 high-tech, well-paying jobs to the center. Glees said many of those employees will live and shop in Bensenville, increasing the demand for housing and retail opportunities in the village.
“Long a part of its economic development strategy, the village sees the attraction of higher skilled, higher paid jobs as essential to maintaining the quality of life its residents expect,” said Village President John Geils of Bensenville 2001, a $43 million plan that includes the technology center.
The shift from industrial/warehouse to office/research uses along Illinois 83 also benefits residents by decreasing truck traffic along the road and by replacing pollution-prone industrial processes with clean, electronics-based activity, Glees said. And office/research buildings generate more property tax revenues.
Unlike Schaumburg and other communities that seek to attract high-profile corporate headquarters, Bensenville probably won’t ever see a real estate bust that leaves beautiful, empty skyscrapers in its wake, Adducci said.
