Office project receives OK in Hoffman Estates

A nine-building office center at Hoffman Estates' old AT&T parcel is set to break ground by late summer, officials revealed Monday night.

Mori Seiki Co. Ltd. would be the main tenant of the project, moving its North American headquarters from Rolling Meadows. The precision toolmaker announced in January it would move to a larger location. It opened its Rolling Meadows location in 2005 at 5655 Meadowbrook Drive.

Mori Seiki will likely be ready to move into its new 102,000-square-foot home sometime in 2009. The Japanese company is the second-largest tool manufacturer of its kind in the world.

The Hoffman Estates project is dubbed the Huntington Woods Corporate Center, a 67-acre development north of the Jane Addams Tollway, west of Huntington Boulevard. It would include a retails strip, offices, restaurants and possibly even a four-story hotel overlooking a pond. McVickers Development LLC made a courtesy review of its plans to the village board Monday. McVickers' John Thompson said the center would bring the village about 1,000 jobs, and there would even be room for a parking lot for commuters using the Metra's long-planned STAR line, whenever, and if, those plans materialize.

Thompson also said other big-name companies with a global presence have expressed interest in moving into the project, but he declined to name the firms.

McVickers still needs to close the deal to buy the parcel with AT&T, which owns the land, Assistant Village Manager Mark Koplin said. McVickers originally sought to develop the parcel exclusively for retail, but now that the project includes offices, McVickers will likely spin the parcel to the McShane Cos., a developed which is more comfortable with mixed-use projects, Koplin said. Village officials say the economy dictates there won't be big-box retail on the plot.