iPark: Lake County (IL) Signs Japanese Corp. as First Occupant

Valent BioSciences Corp. a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. of Japan, has become the first occupant at Innovation Park: Lake County (iPark) in Libertyville, IL. A manufacturer of chemical and biorational products, Valent will invest $22 million to build a 98,000-square-foot research center, with an eye toward a spring 2017 completion date.

iPark: Lake County, at 600 N. US Hwy 45, was once the 1.2-million-square-foot headquarters for Motorola Mobility. In 2014, BECO Management of Rockville, MD acquired the 84-acre site from Google, and has invested $50 million in the project’s first phase.

The project is the next step in a planned national rollout, geared toward re-purposing abandoned, former single-tenant corporate campuses into leading edge multi-tenanted workspaces.