Elk Grove Technology Park now fully leased as latest business moves in

Less than four years after developers broke ground on what had long been the Busse family farm, the Elk Grove Technology Park is now fully leased with the type of high-tech manufacturing they envisioned there.

Brennan Investment Group, the Rosemont-based developer of the massive $1 billion, 85-acre tech park, just leased its remaining 61,000 square feet of spec warehouse space, Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said Wednesday at the ribbon-cutting for the park’s latest tenant to move in, Dexter Magnetic Technologies.

“If we said more than three years ago that at the beginning of 2022 we would be (fully leased), we would’ve been jumping up and down and kissing each other,” Johnson said. “Am I proud? I’m a proud papa.”

Dexter, which designs and manufactures magnetic products and assemblies for the medical, aerospace, defense and semiconductor industries, was outgrowing its 50,000-square-foot factory on Morse Avenue, said President and CEO Joe Stupfel. The company, founded in 1951 as Permag Corp., started as a magnetic products distributor, but gradually grew to handle more complex assemblies in more challenging markets, he said.

After evaluating 16 different sites in Cook and DuPage counties, Stupfel settled on the one just two miles away in the tech park, taking into account costs over the course of a long-term lease and proximity to his 200 employees.

The company’s new 82,000-square-foot home at 801 Innovation Drive takes up a little more than half of one of the four divisible tech park buildings. It overlooks a pond dotted with massive elk statues along busy Higgins Road, where developers are planning to build a hotel and possible retail space as part of the final phase of the tech park development.

Stupfel said the company put a six-month pause on its expansion plans during the pandemic — originally thinking the firm would move to a neighboring building — but restarted leasing talks once business in the commercial aerospace industry began to tick up last year.

Brennan sold 36 acres on the east side of the former farm property to Microsoft for $52.2 million in 2020 — where construction continues on the first of three planned data center buildings totaling 400,000 square feet. It’s where President Joe Biden visited last October to urge COVID-19 vaccinations on the construction site of Clayco.

Johnson said exterior framing is complete on the first Microsoft building, and plans have been submitted to village hall for the second.

Brennan also sold its 165,000-square-foot building along Oakton Street to T5 Data Centers, which was among the first companies to open in the park. Firms that have inked leases include Broetje-Automation, a German aerospace manufacturing firm; and Cosentino Group, which makes surfaces for bathrooms and kitchens.

Dexter officials led tours of their new space Wednesday afternoon, showcasing the expansive shop floor where second-shifters had just begun their workday. Among the work being done: using machines to slice and grind metal blocks, or ingots, into smaller magnets. One of the products Dexter makes is a tiny gold-plated magnet that is a core component of a medical device valve, which helps relieve fluid buildup on the brain.

Dexter just added new grinders and saws within the new building, and has an extra 20,000 square feet of empty space to grow should there be demand from clients.

“With this larger footprint, we have a better ability to streamline and improve our processes,” Stupfel said.