Van Vlissingen and Co. represents office tenants, buyers, and landlords in Wheeling, Illinois. Gordon Lamphere and our office team focus on tenant representation from 3,000 to 50,000 square feet and 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, including office transactions in Wheeling.
We have operated continuously in Chicagoland commercial real estate since 1879.
Our Team’s Office Specialization In Chicago
Tenant Representation
3,000 – 50,000 SF Spaces
Leasing, Sales, & Property Management
Buildings up to 1,000,000 SF Corporate headquarters, multi-tenant, and business park portfolios.
Why Do Companies Put Offices in Wheeling?
Wheeling has an advantage almost no other Chicagoland suburb can claim: the Village co-owns a corporate airport, and it sits inside the village limits.
Chicago Executive Airport opened in 1926 and is jointly owned by the Village of Wheeling and the City of Prospect Heights, which purchased it from private ownership in 1986. Formerly Palwaukee Municipal Airport, it was renamed in 2006. It is now the fourth busiest airport in Illinois, handling nearly 200,000 private and corporate flights a year, with roughly 325 based aircraft — most of them corporate owned — served by three fixed base operators. It operates 24 hours a day, year-round, and US Customs is available on site.
For a company weighing an office location, that is not a curiosity. It means executives can fly privately in and out without touching O’Hare, international arrivals can clear customs at the field, and client visits can be scheduled around a flight rather than around a terminal. Very few suburban office markets can offer that, and it is the single most defensible reason to put a headquarters or regional office in Wheeling rather than three miles away.
And then there is Restaurant Row
Wheeling’s stretch of Milwaukee Avenue along the west bank of the Des Plaines River is one of the best-known dining concentrations in the Chicago area, with the 412-room Westin Chicago North Shore opening alongside it in 2006. For an office tenant hosting clients, the combination of a private airfield and a serious restaurant district within a few minutes’ drive is a practical amenity, not a lifestyle footnote.
Airport figures from the Village of Wheeling and Chicago Executive Airport. Confirm current based-aircraft and movement counts before relying on them commercially.
What Is the Wheeling Commercial Market Like?
Wheeling is a village of approximately 40,000 residents with more than 850 licensed businesses, including over 470 commercial and retail establishments. Its industrial base is substantial: the Village reports nearly 14 million square feet of manufacturing facilities, which makes it one of the larger manufacturing employers in Illinois.
That balance matters for office demand. Wheeling office is not primarily a headquarters-campus market on the Deerfield or Lake Forest model. It skews toward corporate and administrative space supporting a manufacturing, logistics, aviation-services, and hospitality base, plus professional and medical suites serving the residential population. The requirements tend to be practical rather than trophy, and the pricing reflects that.
The Village has established five Tax Increment Financing districts to support development and revitalization. For a project with scale, that conversation is worth having with the Village early rather than late.
Business counts, square footage, and TIF district figures from the Village of Wheeling.
How Do Employees Get to Wheeling?
By car, Wheeling sits nine miles north of O’Hare International Airport with access to Interstate 294, the Tri-State Tollway, and I-355. Milwaukee Avenue (Illinois Route 21) runs north-south through the village, with Dundee Road (Illinois Route 68) and Palatine Road carrying east-west traffic.
By rail, the Wheeling Metra station sits on the North Central Service. The constraint worth planning around is the same one that affects Buffalo Grove and Prospect Heights: the North Central Service runs primarily during rush hour and does not operate on weekends. Employees needing off-peak or weekend rail access use stations on other Metra lines. If your workforce is hybrid or shift-based, that belongs in the site analysis rather than being discovered afterward.
By air, Chicago Executive Airport is in the village, and O’Hare is nine miles south.
Office Tenant Representation in Wheeling — 3,000 to 50,000 SF
Our tenant representation practice covers requirements from 3,000 to 50,000 square feet: single-floor suites, full-floor and multi-floor requirements, headquarters relocations, and consolidations. We work only one side of a given assignment, and we say which side before we begin.
What the assignment covers
- Requirements definition — headcount projections, growth assumptions, and workplace strategy before any tour
- Market survey across listed and off-market availability in Wheeling and comparable Cook and Lake County submarkets
- Labor and commute analysis using the actual residential distribution of your workforce
- Financial comparison on a net effective basis, not asking rate — free rent, tenant improvement allowance, escalations, and operating expense structure all modeled
- Assessment of TIF district eligibility where a project has scale
- Letter of intent and lease negotiation, including expansion and contraction rights, renewal options, sublease and assignment provisions, and building services standards
- Coordination with architects, project managers, and IT through occupancy
Renewals
Most tenants renew from a position of assumed weakness. We run renewals as competitive processes, with a genuine alternatives analysis, because a landlord who believes you have options negotiates differently from one who does not.
Office Leasing, Sales & Property Management in Wheeling — Buildings Up to 1,000,000 SF
For owners and investors, we handle leasing and sales assignments for office buildings up to 1,000,000 square feet — single-tenant, multi-tenant, business park portfolios, and corporate campuses.
Landlord Representation
We build and execute the leasing plan: positioning against real comparables, rent and concession strategy, marketing to the regional tenant and broker community, prospect qualification, and negotiation through lease execution. In Wheeling that includes marketing the airport proximity to the tenant profile that actually values it, rather than treating it as a generic amenity line. We report activity honestly, including when the market is telling you something you did not want to hear.
Investment Sales
Office investment sales turn on rent roll durability, weighted average lease term, rollover exposure, tenant credit, and the true cost of deferred capital. We model those inputs directly and underwrite against transactions we negotiated rather than aggregated listing data. We represent both buyers and sellers, and we work with 1031 exchange buyers against identification and closing deadlines.
Who Manages Office Property in Wheeling?
Van Vlissingen and Co. provides comprehensive property management for office assets in Wheeling:
- Lease administration, rent collection, and enforcement of lease terms
- Operating expense reconciliation and pass-through billing, prepared to withstand tenant audit
- Building engineering, HVAC and life safety systems, and preventive maintenance
- 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
Increasingly the largest part of our management portfolio is third-party assignments. What owners are buying is the operating discipline we built running our own assets — 870 acres and more than 6 million square feet across three corporate parks we developed and still manage, held through multiple market cycles since the mid-1980s.
Why Work With Our Wheeling Office Brokers?
- More than 100 commercial real estate transactions annually, and over $3 billion in team transaction volume
- Tenant representation from 3,000 to 50,000 SF; leasing and sales for buildings up to 1,000,000 SF
- Working knowledge of the Chicago Executive Airport corridor and the tenant profile that values it
- Familiarity with Wheeling’s five TIF districts and when a project qualifies
- Direct owner relationships that surface off-market availability
- Comparables from deals we negotiated ourselves
- In-house property management, so ownership advice reflects operating reality
- A fourth-generation firm, continuously in Chicagoland commercial real estate since 1879
Nearby Markets We Serve
Wheeling borders Buffalo Grove to the north, Prospect Heights to the west, Northbrook and Glenview to the east, and Arlington Heights to the southwest. Office requirements frequently span those lines. We also broker office space in:
In Wheeling itself we also handle industrial space and general commercial brokerage.
Wheeling Office Real Estate FAQs
What size office requirements does Van Vlissingen and Co. handle in Wheeling?
Our tenant representation practice covers requirements from 3,000 to 50,000 square feet. On the leasing, sales, and property management side we handle office buildings up to 1,000,000 square feet, including single-tenant assets, multi-tenant buildings, business park portfolios, and corporate campuses.
Does Wheeling have a corporate airport?
Yes. Chicago Executive Airport sits inside the village and is jointly owned by the Village of Wheeling and the City of Prospect Heights, which purchased it from private ownership in 1986. It opened in 1926 as Palwaukee Municipal Airport and was renamed in 2006. It is the fourth busiest airport in Illinois, handling nearly 200,000 private and corporate flights a year with roughly 325 based aircraft, most of them corporate owned. Three fixed base operators serve the field, it operates 24 hours a day year-round, and US Customs is available on site.
Why would a company choose Wheeling for office space?
Principally for access. Executives can fly privately in and out without using O’Hare, international arrivals can clear customs at the field, and O’Hare itself is nine miles south with Interstate 294 and I-355 nearby. Milwaukee Avenue’s Restaurant Row and the 412-room Westin Chicago North Shore give client-facing tenants a practical hospitality base within minutes of the office.
Does Wheeling have Metra service for office commuters?
Yes, with a limitation worth planning around. The Wheeling station sits on the Metra North Central Service, which runs primarily during rush hour and does not operate on weekends. Employees needing off-peak or weekend rail access use stations on other Metra lines. If your workforce is hybrid or shift-based, that belongs in the site analysis.
What is the Wheeling business base?
The Village reports more than 850 licensed businesses, including over 470 commercial and retail establishments, and nearly 14 million square feet of manufacturing facilities, which makes Wheeling one of the larger manufacturing employers in Illinois. Office demand skews toward corporate and administrative space supporting that base, plus professional and medical suites serving a residential population of approximately 40,000.
Does Wheeling offer development incentives?
The Village has established five Tax Increment Financing districts to support development and revitalization. Projects with scale should raise incentives with the Village early rather than late.
Who is the best commercial real estate broker in Wheeling?
Choose a brokerage with closed transactions in Wheeling specifically, not just regional coverage. Van Vlissingen and Co. performs more than 100 commercial real estate transactions annually, and our team has completed over $3 billion in transaction volume, including office transactions in Wheeling. The firm has operated in Chicagoland commercial real estate since 1879. Gordon Lamphere leads the office practice.
Do you manage office property in Wheeling?
Yes. We provide comprehensive property management for Wheeling office assets, covering lease administration, operating expense reconciliation, building engineering, vendor management, and monthly financial reporting.