Plans are coming into focus for the 322-acre Motorola Solutions campus in Schaumburg, according to a recent report by the Daily Herald. Earlier this month, the publication reported on the announcement that a Topgolf sports complex would take over part of the former campus, and more recently row homes, apartments, senior housing, and medical offices were announced as a part of the plan.

Site developer UrbanStreet Group LLC is close to deciding on a national homebuilder for the row homes, and is considering a loft-style apartment building. The firm owns 225 acres of the site and is looking at options for filling it out. 

Photo courtesy of Motorola

The former Motorola site is among one of the proposed sites sent to Amazon for the company’s HQ2. Bob Burk, managing partner of UrbanStreet, told the Herald that none of the projects would get in the way of Amazon landing at the site.

At the start of the year, Mayor Al Larson presented the annual state of the village to the Schaumburg Business Association. The proposed Topgolf facility was among the developments announced at the presentation, as well as four restaurants along the front of the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg near the Woodfield Mall. 

The facility is planned for the area just northwest of the Motorola Solutions tower at the southwest corner of Algonquin and Meacham roads. If all goes as planned, the facility will be open to the public in 2019. 

Another major part of the redevelopment of the Motorola campus is a new public road, which will run between the south side of Algonquin Road, west side of Meacham Road, and north of Jane Addams Memorial Tollway. The Daily Herald reported on the approved plan for the road at the start of 2017, which is slated to cost Schaumburg $625,000.

The road is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.  

Long Process of Site Redevelopment

Motorola announced that it was selling off part of its headquarters in 2014 when the technology company made plans to downsize. According to the Chicago Tribune, Motorola initially planned to sell 33 acres and a 175,000-square-foot building, and by spring of the next year village officials began to plan for hotels, restaurants, and other facilities to take over the space. 

The idea of a self-contained community of retail, housing, offices, restaurants, hotels, and more began to take shape in July 2017. In pure size, the lot rivals the land area of Chicago’s Loop, and provides a big opportunity for the area to evolve. Burk told the Herald in July that he sees the project has an “early part of the second charter in the story of the Chicago suburbs.” 

The lot also benefits from a prime location along the border of the I-90 tollway and just west of O’Hare Airport.