CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | JULY 24, 2023 | $3.50
Warehouse wars break out in the suburbs From Naperville to Deerfield, plans to repurpose dormant office campuses spark backlash
Mason Awtry is CEO of Chicago office services firm Wurkwel.
The boom in unused desks and cube walls
A flood of furniture and fixtures is pouring in from high-rises and office parks. ‘For every action, there’s an opposite reaction,’ says one office services CEO. I BY JUDITH CROWN
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he nation is awash in used Herman Miller desk chairs, Steelcase desks, conference room tables and cubicle walls. As companies continue to downsize their office space in the post-pandemic era, furniture is pouring out of downtown high-rises and suburban office parks. Facilitating the transition are used furniture dealers who earn money breaking down or decommissioning offices. The companies giving up space can earn a credit for valuable
pieces they have on hand. In other instances, they pay the dealers to cart away obsolete furniture. “For every action, there’s an opposite reaction,” says Mason Awtry, CEO of Chicago office services firm Wurkwel, which owns used dealer Office Furniture Center at Roosevelt Road and Cicero Avenue. Decommissioning jobs have more than doubled since the start of the COVID pandemic at Wurkwel, See FURNITURE on Page 18
JOHN R. BOEHM
BY DANNY ECKER Coming soon to a suburb near you: the battle over converting empty office parks to warehouses. Amid record high office vacancy and demand for workspace that may have weakened for good, proposals are popping up across the Chicago area to replace underused office buildings with distribution hubs for the booming online retail sector. In some cases, it’s getting heated. Hundreds of north suburban residents packed the Deerfield High School gym in May to wave signs and boo as Chicago-based Bridge Industrial pitched its plan to raze the Baxter International headquarters and build a pair of large industrial buildings on the 101-acre site. “It’s not consistent with what the future of Deerfield should be for the young families we have
MORE: Suburban office vacancy hits new high. PAGE 6
here and the young families we want to continue to attract,” says Harry Steindler, a 37-year Deerfield resident who lives across Interstate 294 from the Baxter property. “That’s the lifeblood of our whole community.” The fight puts pressure on officials in suburban municipalities to weigh the impact that such massive redevelopments would have on their towns and make decisions that could not only spark fights among their neighbors but dramatically change their environs for decades. Those in favor see them as effective ways to reinvigorate white-elephant office properties, bringing new jobs and local tax revenue to large commercial See CONVERSIONS on Page 19
Wondering where your property tax bill is? If you live in Cook County, your next statement will be arriving late — again BY ALBY GALLUN If you live in Cook County, your next property tax bill will be arriving late — again. For the second year in a row, the county has delayed sending out notices to property owners informing them what they owe for the second installment of their property taxes. The county treasurer normally sends out the
bills in early July, with taxes due in early August. This year, the bills should come out in early November with a due date of Dec. 1, according to a news release from the office of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with a critical overhaul of the technological backbone of the system, has had a dramatic impact on the county’s property tax processes and timelines,” the release said. Late tax bills became a source See TAX BILLS on Page 18
VOL. 46, NO. 29 l COPYRIGHT 2023 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
MADELEINE DOUBEK
CRAIN’S LIST
From the high court on down, government ethics must take center stage now. PAGE 2
Size up the assets of the Chicago area’s largest banks and thrifts. PAGE 9