Calamos Real Estate LLC is developing mixed-use project CityGate Centre in Naperville, Ill. With a $300 million budget, the company aims to create an urban oasis outside the busy lifestyle of Chicago.

Two-year-old Calamos Real Estate LLC may be relatively new in the industry, but its personnel have extensive experience in developing mixed-use real estate projects. In fact, its president, Dan Slack, has more than 22 years of design, construction and real estate development expertise. He most recently served as the senior vice president for Chicago-based real estate development company The Alter Group. He also has worked as the managing director for Stein and Co. and senior project man-ager for Pepper Construction Co.

These experiences, Slack notes, were beneficial to establishing Naperville, Ill.-based Calamos. But what makes Calamos different from the other companies he had worked for is its commitment to creating a metropolis atmosphere outside the hustle and bustle of cities such as Chicago. “Our belief is to create a dynamic urban oasis out in the suburbs that corporate America can use as a recruitment and retention tool for the best workers in this competitive environment,” Slack says. “We want [clients] to experience the same environment they experience in Chicago, but they don't have to drive [far] to get that,” Slack states. “We offer the [proximity to] shopping, luxury living and office space - people crave that experience.”

Building CityGate
Calamos is developing CityGate Centre, a mixed-use development in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago. Although it is the first mixed-use project for the company, many of its members have been involved in several mixed-use projects. Development began when Calamos Real Estate commenced construction on its first project at the site, a new headquarters for Calamos Investments. The company anticipates a five-year build-out, with an overall completion date of 2012.

The $300 million CityGate Centre project is on a 31-acre site, and will include office space, shopping and restaurants, a luxury hotel, as well as a major performing arts center - all in one location.

It will feature:

• 1 million square feet of Class-A offices
• 150,000 square feet of retail
• A 144-room luxury boutique hotel
• A 700-seat performing arts center

“[All features] are within walking distance,” Slack notes. “It's centered in a dynamic, urban main street. You get a sense that you're in one of the great urban neighborhoods of the world.”

Phase I is scheduled to finish this summer, with a completion of 213,000 square feet of office space, 57,000 square feet of commercial space and 1,050 parking stalls.

The hotel is expected to be completed in summer 2008, a year before Calamos hosts the 2009 Solheim Cup, an LPGA event, which follows the same format as the Ryder Cup, Slack says.