“We were bursting at the seams.”
Steve Benck, West Side Tractor Sales president, says that was one of the primary motivators behind the John Deere dealer’s move from its longtime Naperville, Illinois, headquarters to its new location in Lisle, Illinois.
And after a series of growth spurts – including doubling the size of its footprint in 2010 when it expanded into Indiana and Michigan – another realization emerged.
“Our Naperville facility just wasn’t representing what we feel we bring to the market,” Steve says.
Because the 3.5-acre Naperville headquarters had become such a tight squeeze, the company had farmed out several functions to other locations in its 11-store footprint. Warranty processing, for example, was at one branch and fleet management at another.
Relocating in the greater Chicago area, however, can be problematic. The things West Side Tractor required – enough acreage to grow, easy access to expressways – were also attractive to major retailers with deeper pockets. The need to move heavy equipment on and off site took industrial parks off the list.
The company finally settled on an 11-acre former car dealership vacated in 2008. The 83,000-square-foot main facility would be refurbished into office space, and the former car shop converted into parts and whole goods warehousing.
