For the second time in as many months, homebuilder PulteGroup has bought an office property in the Chicago suburbs that it plans to demolish for a residential development.
Pulte last month paid $2 million for a two-story, 155,030-square-foot office building at 1950 Hassell Road in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, according to Cook County property records. Pulte plans to build 69 townhouses on the site, according to plans filed with the village.
That deal came after Pulte in December completed a $5.1 million purchase of an 18-acre portion of drugstore giant Walgreens Boots Alliance’s longtime headquarters campus in north suburban Deerfield. Pulte plans to demolish corporate space on the site and replace it with 42 single-family homes.
The Chicago-area deals continue Pulte’s approach nationally of buying unwanted commercial properties, such as offices and shopping centers, to replace them with homes.
It also adds to a wave of suburban offices throughout the country being bought for land value. In the Chicago area, that includes larger projects such as Allstate’s longtime headquarters campus making way for a logistics complex in Glenview and Sears’ longtime headquarters in Hoffman Estates falling to be replaced with data centers.
The seller in Pulte’s Hoffman Estates deal was an affiliate of real estate giant Brookfield, which acquired the property as part of Brookfield Business Partners’ $6.41 billion buyout of automotive software maker CDK Global in 2022.
Kensington Fields Townhomes
Pulte plans a project called Kensington Fields Townhomes once it clears the site.
The 55-year-old office building has been vacant since CDK moved its headquarters to about 27,000 square feet at 2895 Greenspoint Parkway in Hoffman Estates early last year, said Cushman & Wakefield broker Chris Wood, one of the brokers who represented CDK in the move and Brookfield in the property sale of the approximately 11.3-acre site.
The northwest suburban property is along Interstate 90 and the Hilldale Golf Club.
“It’s surrounded by residential and a golf course, so the primary interest was from residential developers,” Wood said.
Hoffman Estates’ village board approved Pulte’s proposal for Kensington Fields Townhomes in October. The townhome plan includes 69 attached single-family townhomes, each with three bedrooms, and ranging from 1,883 to 2,508 square feet, according to the filing.
Base floor plans include two floors with two-car garages and an open-concept floorplan. The second floor houses three bedrooms, a laundry room, two bathrooms, and a walk-in closet off each bedroom.
The proposed plan includes the same exterior palette for each block of townhouses: a gray board-and-batten shake style with black roofing and brick accents with white trim, doors and windows.
Base home models will start in the low $400,000s, but buyers can select optional add-ons such as a sunroom, roof terrace, and third-floor loft. Pulte predicts the average sales price to be $493,000, according to the filing with the village.
Atlanta-based Pulte did not respond to requests to comment.
Proposed plans in October show demolition set for February. Pulte received approval for demolition this month.
Model home construction is anticipated to begin in July with a grand opening in November, followed by home starts in December. If plans go accordingly, construction will conclude in spring 2028.