The Oakbrook Terrace Tower is getting a new tenant: a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In March, the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will open offices on four floors of the 31-story office building, the tallest structure in Illinois outside of Chicago and home to 1,200 workers.
More than 200 DHS employees are expected to work in the Oakbrook Terrace Tower. Elissa Brown, special agent in charge of the Chicago division, said the move was necessary because staff expansions caused the agency to outgrow their downtown Chicago office in the U.S. Customs building at 610 S. Canal St.
Although the offices will have some enhanced security measures, such as extra cameras and bulletproof glass in the reception area, Brown said most of the office space will be like any other–with workers sitting at cubicles and desks, analyzing data and writing reports.
There will be some rooms set aside to conduct interviews of potential suspects, she said, but there won’t be holding cells or anything like the interrogation rooms at police stations. “It’s literally an office, with a desk and chairs,” she said.
Brown said the major selling point of leasing space at the tower was its access to the nearby highways.
Most workers in the building either had not heard of the new incoming tenant or were not concerned about sharing a building with an agency formed as a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Andrea Walker, 41, an executive assistant at DeVry Inc., said she did not think it suddenly put a “big red X” on the building.
“Everybody feels a little bit safer, and I don’t think this building is much of a target,” she said. “I think [terrorists] would make a bigger splash, something like the Sears Tower.”
A few workers, however, said they had concerns that the new offices could attract attention, just like any federal building.
Brown said tenants have nothing to worry about. In fact, she said, if anything, the building’s going to be even more secure with the bureau there.
“If anything’s going to happen, [terrorists are] going to look toward the big city,” she said. “They’re not going to look toward Oak Brook.”
The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the investigative arm of the Border and Transportation Security Directorate, the DHS office charged with securing the nation’s borders and safeguarding its transportation infrastructure.
The DHS has more than 180,000 employees nationwide.
Arvid Povilaitis, senior vice president for the Chicago region of the building’s manager, Equity Office, said the company is confident of the government agency’s plan to secure its space in the building.
“The role of this customer is consistent with that of a high-quality office building user,” Povilaitis said in a statement. “Furthermore, we feel that the local area will benefit from the influx of jobs that the Department of Homeland Security will bring to Oakbrook Terrace Tower.”
The building is currently 77.3 percent occupied, without the new tenant, according to Equity Office.
