NAI Hiffman Executive Vice President Aubrey Englund helps tenant expand with third location

NAI Hiffman today announced it represented Hummingbird Pediatric Therapies in its expansion to a third location in Chicago’s west suburbs. Hummingbird signed a lease for 10,523 square feet within a single-story office building at 501 W. Lake St. in Elmhurst, Ill. Renovation of the space is underway, with the facility – to be formally named the Hummingbird Therapy & Enrichment Elmhurst Center – slated to open in summer 2024.

Aubrey Englund, executive vice president, office services, at Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based NAI Hiffman, represented Hummingbird in the transaction. Norm Murdoch of Chicago-based Bradford Allen represented the landlord.

“The expansion into Elmhurst was a geographical maneuver by Hummingbird to meet growing demand for multidisciplinary pediatric therapy throughout the west, northwest and southwest suburbs,” said Englund. “It’s especially gratifying to help a valued client scale their business through strategic real estate transactions. This required identifying landlords willing to invest in a service provider that is not a traditional office user. Knowing a Pediatric Therapy Center remodel requires heavy upfront construction costs, we identified a space in Elmhurst with substantial reusable existing conditions and an adjacent warehouse that will become a gym, making the project costs feasible for both landlord and tenant.”

Prior to this lease, Englund represented Hummingbird in three other leases totaling 27,000 square feet: the 10,000-square-foot Woodridge center that opened at 9018 Heritage Parkway in early 2022, and two expansions at the Westmont location, 750 Pasquinelli Drive, which now spans over 17,000 square feet.

Hummingbird offers a wide variety of speech, feeding, occupational, physical and developmental therapies, as well as counseling, Hummingbird Children’s Academy and more. The growing practice has approximately 70 employees, many of whom have advanced degrees in pediatric therapy. Hummingbird’s founder, Christina Scalise-Morrissey, opened her private practice after serving as clinical coordinator at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital.

“Our growth has been supported by some very instrumental people, and Aubrey is hands down one of them,” Scalise-Morrissey said. “Aubrey finds us exactly the kind of space we’re looking for in single-story buildings with lots of natural light and ample parking, and she identifies landlords who are willing to fund a heavy construction allowance. The lease terms and funding she was able to secure on our behalf gave me the confidence I needed to make big moves to take on additional space, expand our staff and invest in new gym equipment.”

During 2023, Englund closed 24 transactions totaling 204,000 square feet. They included several expansions, and she helped four clients achieve an overall average square footage increase of at least 300%.

About NAI Hiffman:

NAI Hiffman is one of the largest independent commercial real estate services firms in the US, with a primary focus on metropolitan Chicago, and part of the NAI Global network. We provide institutional and private leasing, property management, tenant representation, capital markets, project services, research, and marketing services for owners and occupiers of commercial real estate. To meet our clients’ growing needs outside of our exclusive NAI Hiffman territory, we launched Hiffman National, our dedicated property solutions division, which provides property management, project services, and property accounting services across the country. NAI Hiffman | Hiffman National is headquartered in suburban Chicago, with more than 200 employees strategically located throughout North America. For more information, please visit hiffman.com.