Navistar Inc. has been in talks for several months to move its international headquarters to the former Alcatel-Lucent S.A. campus in Lisle, Illinois, according to the Chicago Tribune. It would employ 4,000 people at the site, including 900 employees that would be relocated from out-of-state facilities.
The Tribune reported that details of the proposed move from its current headquarters in Warrenville were contained in a zoning petition recently filed by Navistar with Lisle. A public hearing on the company proposal at the planning and zoning commission is scheduled for Oct. 21.
Navistar is working with officials in Lisle to get approval to demolish two buildings, renovate seven others as well as construct a 380,000-square-foot technology center and a four-level parking garage at the 87.9-acre campus, according to the Tribune.
Navistar currently has 1,200 employees in Warrenville offices that were configured to house 850 people while other employees work in Schaumburg and Melrose Park. At times, the company has had to rent offsite parking spots for employees at the headquarters.
The Lisle campus has sat largely vacant for the past two years. Among the changes the company is seeking is to change Lucent Lane to Navistar Way.
Two years ago, Alcatel-Lucent, which still owns buildings west of Naperville Road, sold 51.44 vacant acres on the north edge of its campus on the east side of Naperville Road to the DuPage County Forest Preserve District for $22 million. The land, which contains 25 to 30 acres of ball fields, about 10 acres of prairie and another 10 to 15 acres of woods, was combined with the district's Danada Forest Preserve immediately to the north.