Office Space in Aurora, Illinois

Van Vlissingen and Co. represents office tenants, buyers, and landlords in Aurora, Illinois. Gordon Lamphere and our office team focus on tenant representation from 3,000 to 50,000 square feet, with leasing, sales, and property management for buildings up to 1,000,000 square feet.

Van Vlissingen and Co. performs more than 100 commercial real estate transactions annually, and our team has completed over $3 billion in transaction volume. We have operated continuously in Chicagoland commercial real estate since 1879, and we manage 870 acres and more than 6 million square feet across three corporate parks we developed ourselves.

What Is the Aurora Office Market?

Larger and more diversified than most people outside the Fox Valley assume, and priced well below the northern and north-western suburbs.

The numbers

Aurora currently carries roughly 74 office space listings for lease, with an average available size of 8,536 square feet and an average asking rent of about $21 per square foot. A separate small-office and executive suite inventory adds a further 19 spaces across 13 buildings, totaling 106,645 square feet.

That 8,536 square foot average sits squarely inside our office tenant representation range of 3,000 to 50,000 square feet, which makes Aurora one of the better-matched markets we cover for a mid-sized occupier.

The cost position

At roughly $21 per square foot, Aurora office space is materially cheaper than the North Shore and the northwest suburbs. The wider cost picture matches: Aurora’s cost of living runs approximately 5 to 8 percent below the national average, with median home prices of roughly $295,000 to $320,000 citywide, significantly below comparable Chicago north and northwest suburbs.

For an employer, that combination — lower occupancy cost and lower cost of living for staff — is a genuine recruitment and retention argument, not just a real estate one.

Listing figures per CityFeet and OfficeSpace.com, reflecting current availability rather than total inventory. Cost of living and housing figures per published market commentary.

Who Actually Employs People in Aurora?

This is the question that determines whether an office market has depth, and Aurora’s answer is unusually broad for a city outside the immediate Chicago ring.

• Caterpillar operates its Aurora plant as part of CAT’s 17,400-employee Illinois footprint
• Rush Copley Medical Center is a 210-bed hospital within the Rush University System for Health
• Old Second National Bank is headquartered here — the home of Old Second Bancorp, operating more than 25 facilities across seven counties
• Hollywood Casino Aurora runs a 53,000 square foot downtown facility, with a new $360 million facility on the I-88 corridor
• The Fox Valley Industrial Association tracks more than 150 manufacturers in the region
• Aurora University and Waubonsee Community College anchor the education sector
• Also present or cited: MetLife, Navistar, Cabela’s, Dreyer Medical Clinic, Mercy Medical Center, and West Aurora Public Schools

Two things stand out for office specifically. Aurora has a headquarters — Old Second Bancorp is a publicly traded bank holding company run from this city, not a branch of something run elsewhere. And the sector mix is genuinely diversified across manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, gaming, education, and government.

A market dependent on one employer moves as one. Aurora is not that market, and for a landlord underwriting a ten-year hold that matters more than any single tenant name on the list.

Employer figures per published sources including Armorstack, CommercialCafe, and Spaces. Confirm individual figures before relying on them.

Where Is Office Space in Aurora?

Aurora has four distinct office submarkets and they trade on entirely different logic.

• Downtown Aurora and Stolp Island — the city’s most walkable area, with historic and converted office product around the Paramount Theatre, RiverEdge Park, Two Brothers Roundhouse, Hollywood Casino, and Waubonsee Community College. Roughly half a mile from the Aurora Transportation Center.
• The Interstate 88 corridor and the Orchard Road interchange — the corporate and R&D position, on the outer edge of the Illinois Technology and Research Corridor.
• The Route 59 and Fox Valley area — modern suburban office alongside the Fox Valley Mall retail concentration, with the Route 59 Metra station on the Aurora and Naperville border.
• The Ogden Avenue (Route 34) and Orchard Road corridors — medical office, professional services, and smaller multi-tenant buildings, including the areas around Rush Copley and Mercy.

Downtown offers character, walkability, and rail at lower rents, with the constraints that come with older buildings. The I-88 corridor offers modern floor plates and highway visibility for corporate users. Route 59 offers newer suburban product with retail amenity attached. The medical corridors serve a specific tenant type. A comparable set averaged across all four describes none of them.

Why Does Aurora Span Four Counties?

Because of how it grew along the Fox River, and it is genuinely unusual: Aurora is reported to be one of only three Illinois cities spanning four counties — Kane, DuPage, Kendall, and Will.

For office real estate that is not trivia. Sales tax rates and property assessment practice differ across all four, which means:

• Occupancy cost differs across the city. Two comparable buildings a few miles apart can carry materially different tax pass-throughs, and the difference compounds over a ten-year lease.
• Operating expense budgets do not transfer. A budget built for a building on the Kane County side will not hold on the DuPage side.
• Assessment appeals run through different offices with different practice and different calendars.

We confirm the county for a specific building before a letter of intent, as a matter of course. Most brokers do not, and on a fifty thousand square foot lease the difference is real money.

How Good Is Transit and Access for Aurora Office?

Better than most western suburban markets, and it is one of the reasons the office base holds up.

Aurora has two Metra stations on the BNSF line. The Aurora Transportation Center sits downtown, with office product within roughly half a mile. The Route 59 station sits on the Aurora and Naperville border, serving the Fox Valley office and retail concentration. Two stations on the same line gives an employer a genuine choice of location without losing rail access.

By road, Interstate 88 runs along the northern edge with the Orchard Road interchange serving the corporate corridor. Aurora Municipal Airport adds general aviation capability that few suburban markets offer.

For an office occupier weighing a downtown Chicago location against a suburban one, two BNSF stations means staff living in the city can reverse-commute without a car, which materially widens the recruitment pool.

Office Tenant Representation in Aurora — 3,000 to 50,000 SF

Our office tenant representation practice covers the 3,000 to 50,000 square foot range across corporate headquarters requirements, multi-tenant space, medical office, and business park suites.

For occupiers entering or expanding in Aurora, we run the full process: requirement definition, market survey across listed and off-market availability, building inspection, and comparative analysis of total occupancy cost rather than headline rent.

Four things drive an Aurora office decision.

Which submarket. Downtown, I-88, Route 59, and the medical corridors serve different tenants at different rents with different amenity. The choice should follow your staff and your clients, not the rent sheet.

Which county. Aurora spans four, and the tax and assessment treatment differs across all of them. This is the first question we answer for a specific building.

Which station. If rail access matters to your recruitment, the Aurora Transportation Center and the Route 59 station serve different catchments and the choice is worth making deliberately.

Total occupancy cost. Average asking rent of around $21 per square foot is a starting point, not an answer. We model occupancy on a gross effective basis including the tax line, operating expenses, parking, and the real cost of any build-out.

We negotiate the LOI and the lease — free rent, tenant improvement allowances, expansion and contraction rights, renewal and termination options, and parking. We work both sides of the table in Aurora, and we tell you which side we are on before an assignment begins.

Office Leasing, Sales & Property Management in Aurora — Buildings Up to 1,000,000 SF

For owners and investors we handle office leasing, investment sales, and property management, from single-tenant buildings to multi-building business park portfolios up to 1,000,000 square feet.

Landlord Representation

We build and execute the leasing plan: positioning against comparables from transactions we negotiated ourselves, marketing to the regional and national occupier base, prospect qualification, and negotiation through lease execution. For an Aurora building that means leading with the cost position and the employment diversity — roughly $21 per square foot against North Shore alternatives, in a city with a Fortune-scale manufacturer, a 210-bed hospital system, a headquartered bank holding company, and 150-plus regional manufacturers — rather than competing on prestige against markets with more of it. We report activity honestly, including when the market is telling you something you did not want to hear.

Investment Sales

Office assets trade on tenant credit, remaining lease term, building quality, and the durability of the underlying employment base. Aurora’s case rests on the last of those: a diversified employer mix across manufacturing, healthcare, finance, gaming, and education is a materially better ten-year risk than a single-sector suburb, and it should be priced accordingly. We work with 1031 exchange buyers on identification and closing deadlines, and we underwrite against comparables from transactions we negotiated rather than aggregated listing data.

Downtown and Repositioning

Downtown Aurora carries older and converted office stock alongside genuine amenity — the Paramount Theatre, RiverEdge Park, casino, riverfront, and Metra within half a mile. That is a repositioning market rather than a stabilized one, and it should be underwritten as such: capital requirements on older buildings are higher and less predictable, the realistic tenant set is narrower, and the amenity advantage is real but takes time to price in. We model the capital requirement explicitly rather than discounting for age without crediting the position.

Who Manages Office Property in Aurora?

Van Vlissingen and Co. provides comprehensive property management for office assets in Aurora:

• Lease administration, rent collection, and enforcement of lease terms
• CAM and tax reconciliation, prepared to withstand tenant audit
• Building systems, HVAC, elevator, and life safety maintenance programs
• Janitorial, landscaping, snow removal, and parking management
• Vendor selection, contract negotiation, and performance oversight
• Monthly financial reporting, annual budgeting, and capital planning
• Tenant relations, renewal coordination, and suite turnover

Because Aurora spans four counties, an operating expense budget built on one set of assessment assumptions will not hold across the city. We budget and reconcile by county, as we do in the other split-jurisdiction markets we cover. Older downtown buildings also carry envelope, mechanical, and life safety requirements that newer corridor product does not, and those need programmed capital planning rather than reactive repair.

What Is Van Vlissingen’s Office Experience?

Van Vlissingen and Co. performs more than 100 commercial real estate transactions annually, and our team has completed over $3 billion in transaction volume.

The relevant credential for an office assignment is that we own and operate office space rather than only broker it. We developed and still manage 870 acres and more than 6 million square feet across three corporate parks, of which Corporate Woods in Vernon Hills is roughly 25 percent office across more than 60 buildings on 340 acres. Corporate Grove in Buffalo Grove carries office, research, and high-tech space across 200 acres, and Lincolnshire Corporate Center covers a further 330 acres.

We have leased, managed, and re-tenanted office suites on our own balance sheet through multiple market cycles since the mid-1980s, including the period since 2020 when the office market changed more than at any point in that history. Increasingly the largest part of our management portfolio is third-party assignments, and what those owners are buying is that operating discipline.

See our full transaction history.

Why Work With Our Aurora Office Brokers?

• More than 100 commercial real estate transactions annually, and over $3 billion in team transaction volume
• A defined focus: 3,000 to 50,000 SF tenant representation and buildings up to 1,000,000 SF for leasing, sales, and management
• Four submarkets underwritten separately rather than averaged into one Aurora comparable
• Four-county tax and assessment differences established before a letter of intent, not after
• Office space owned and operated on our own account, not only brokered
• Occupancy modeled on total cost rather than an average asking rent
• Employment diversity presented as the underwriting case it genuinely is
• A fourth-generation firm, continuously in Chicagoland commercial real estate since 1879

Nearby Markets We Serve

Aurora sits at the western edge of the Chicago metropolitan area across Kane, DuPage, Kendall, and Will Counties, adjoining Naperville to the east, North Aurora and Batavia to the north, Montgomery and Oswego to the south, and Sugar Grove to the west. Office requirements frequently span those lines, particularly along the I-88 and Route 59 corridors. We also broker office space in

• Lake Forest
• Schaumburg
• Buffalo Grove
• Greater Chicagoland

In Aurora itself we also handle retail space, industrial space, property management, and general commercial brokerage.

Aurora Office Real Estate FAQs

How much office space is available in Aurora?

Roughly 74 office space listings are currently available for lease, with an average available size of 8,536 square feet and an average asking rent of about $21 per square foot. A separate small-office and executive suite inventory adds a further 19 spaces across 13 buildings totaling 106,645 square feet. That 8,536 square foot average sits squarely inside our office tenant representation range of 3,000 to 50,000 square feet. These figures reflect current availability rather than total inventory and they change.

Is office space cheaper in Aurora than the northern suburbs?

Materially so. Aurora office space averages around $21 per square foot, well below North Shore and northwest suburban rates. The wider cost picture matches: Aurora’s cost of living runs approximately 5 to 8 percent below the national average, with median home prices of roughly $295,000 to $320,000 citywide, significantly below comparable Chicago north and northwest suburbs. For an employer that combination is a recruitment and retention argument as well as a real estate one.

Which employers drive office demand in Aurora?

An unusually diversified set. Caterpillar operates its Aurora plant as part of CAT’s 17,400-employee Illinois footprint. Rush Copley Medical Center is a 210-bed hospital within the Rush University System for Health. Old Second National Bank is headquartered in Aurora, the home of Old Second Bancorp with more than 25 facilities across seven counties. Hollywood Casino Aurora runs a 53,000 square foot downtown facility with a new $360 million I-88 facility. The Fox Valley Industrial Association tracks more than 150 regional manufacturers, and Aurora University and Waubonsee Community College anchor education. A market dependent on one employer moves as one; Aurora is not that market.

Where are Aurora’s office submarkets?

Four, and they trade on different logic. Downtown Aurora and Stolp Island offer historic and converted product in the city’s most walkable area, around half a mile from the Aurora Transportation Center. The Interstate 88 corridor and Orchard Road interchange carry the corporate and R&D position on the edge of the Illinois Technology and Research Corridor. The Route 59 and Fox Valley area offers modern suburban product with retail amenity and its own Metra station. The Ogden Avenue and Orchard Road corridors carry medical office and professional services around Rush Copley and Mercy.

How many counties does Aurora span, and why does it matter for office?

Four — Kane, DuPage, Kendall, and Will — making Aurora one of only three Illinois cities to do so. It matters because sales tax rates and property assessment practice differ across all four. Two comparable buildings a few miles apart can carry materially different tax pass-throughs, an operating expense budget built for the Kane County side will not hold on the DuPage side, and assessment appeals run through different offices with different practice and calendars. We confirm the county for a specific building before a letter of intent.

How good is transit access for Aurora office space?

Strong for a western suburban market. Aurora has two Metra stations on the BNSF line: the Aurora Transportation Center downtown, with office product within roughly half a mile, and the Route 59 station on the Aurora and Naperville border serving the Fox Valley concentration. Two stations on the same line gives an employer a genuine choice of location without losing rail access, and staff living in the city can reverse-commute without a car, which materially widens the recruitment pool. Interstate 88 runs along the northern edge with the Orchard Road interchange, and Aurora Municipal Airport adds general aviation capability few suburban markets offer.

What size office space does Van Vlissingen and Co. handle in Aurora?

Our office tenant representation practice covers 3,000 to 50,000 square feet in Aurora and across the Fox Valley, spanning corporate headquarters requirements, multi-tenant space, medical office, and business park suites. On the leasing, sales, and property management side we handle buildings up to 1,000,000 square feet.

Is downtown Aurora a good option for office tenants?

For the right occupier, yes. Downtown offers walkability, the Paramount Theatre, RiverEdge Park, the riverfront, Hollywood Casino, Waubonsee Community College, and Metra within half a mile, at rents below the corridor product. The trade-off is older and converted building stock, which means less predictable capital requirements, floor plates that may not suit a modern layout, and parking that needs checking rather than assuming. It is a repositioning market rather than a stabilized one, and we underwrite it that way.

Who is the best commercial office broker in Aurora?

Choose a brokerage that treats Aurora’s four submarkets separately, establishes which of the four counties a building sits in before a letter of intent, and owns and operates office space rather than only brokering it. Van Vlissingen and Co. developed and still manages 870 acres and more than 6 million square feet across three corporate parks, of which Corporate Woods in Vernon Hills is roughly 25 percent office across more than 60 buildings. We perform more than 100 transactions annually with over $3 billion in team volume, and the firm has operated in Chicagoland commercial real estate since 1879. Gordon Lamphere leads the office practice.

Do you manage office property in Aurora?

Yes. We provide comprehensive property management for Aurora office assets, covering lease administration, CAM and tax reconciliation, building systems and life safety programs, janitorial and parking management, vendor oversight, and monthly financial reporting. Because Aurora spans four counties, an operating expense budget built on one set of assessment assumptions will not hold across the city, so we budget and reconcile by county.