Site Selected for Sears Center; Sears and Ryan's Momentum Continues

Naperville, IL (March 03, 2005) — Ryan Companies US, Inc. and Sears have announced the formal selection of a 35-acre site within Prairie Stone Business Park and released a dramatic nighttime rendering of the planned Sears Centre, continuing to move toward a Spring 2005 groundbreaking.

“With its prominent location and visibility from I-90, the Northwest Tollway, Sears Centre will become a landmark for Hoffman Estates and the Northwest suburbs and serve as the front door to Prairie Stone,” said Jeff Smith, president, Ryan Midwest. “The Village of Hoffman Estates will be very proud of Sears Centre.”

The sites designated for Sears Centre are known as lots 13 and 14 and total approximately 35 acres. The lots are situated in the south central section of the Park, an area offering excellent visibility from I-90 and accessibility from Route 59 and Beverly. The Ryan/Sears development team has completed extensive preliminary site and facility design and expects the arena will host its first events in Fall 2006.

“The site designation and the design progress represent yet another of the milestone steps made since we announced this project in November,” said Steve Hyman, president of CCO, the group that will operate Sears Centre. “We are very excited about the response Sears Centre has already generated within the sports and entertainment industry."

In November 2004 Sears and Ryan announced a partnership to develop a $60 million, 11,000-seat multi-purpose family entertainment, cultural and sports center within Prairie Stone Business Park. The arena will attract 600,000 visitors to more than 135 events annually and be a significant boom to the local economy.

Following three months of intense planning and design, the development team has released preliminary renderings depicting Sears Centre during the day and at night.

Sears Centre will be the centerpiece of an abundantly landscaped site, surrounded by an ample plaza for pre- and post-event functions and complementary exterior events. The building has been designed to sit gently on the site, and integrate graciously with the indigenous prairie landscape.
Seating capacity for the arena ranges from 3,000 to 6,000 for theater productions; 9,500 for hockey, lacrosse and soccer games; 10,000 for basketball and 11,500 for “center stage” concerts. Parking will accommodate 2,500 vehicles. The arena will feature 42 conference suites and 1,000 club seats. The balance is “general admission” seating. The facility will feature two private clubs, one for club seats and one for regular seating.

The architecture of the Sears Centre seeks to integrate with the landscape, hugging the ground in sweeping horizontal lines punctuated by the occasional strong vertical element. Through judicious material choices – brick, cast stone, anodized metal panel and ample glass, it has also been designed to appeal both to the patron approaching on foot and those driving past at 75 mph along I-90.

After dark the building will appear to hover on a cushion of light, with the ribbon windows of the suite level leading the eye to the glowing lantern of the multi-story glass entry. At night this will provide an exciting cross-section of bustle and activity on several levels of balconies overlooking the front lobby. During the day it will admit ample natural light.

The medium scale of the arena, along with the horseshoe bowl configuration, allow for all spectators to enjoy premium sightlines and feeling of proximity to the event floor. The event floor has been recessed 20 feet into the ground to conceal half the bulk of the 240,000 square foot building mass, allowing it to sit low to the ground. The stairs and building services have been collected into four compact towers around the perimeter of the building, allowing for the smallest possible footprint of the arena bowl itself, and serving to break the potentially imposing mass down into a collection of more hospitably-scaled elements.

Events the partnership expects to host include family entertainment shows, concerts, ice shows, family programs, hockey games, arena football games, college basketball tournaments, tennis matches and tournaments, boxing matches and exhibitions.

Ryan owns a 75 percent interest in the partnership. In addition to serving as General Partner, Ryan will provide design, development and construction services. Hoffman Estates-based Sears will hold the remaining 25 percent interest and contribute the land for the development. Sears also has committed to a 10-year naming rights agreement.

About Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. is a leading broadline retailer providing merchandise and related services. With revenues in 2004 of $36.1 billion, the company offers its wide range of home merchandise, apparel and automotive products and services through more than 2,400 Sears-branded and affiliated stores in the U.S. and Canada, which includes approximately 870 full-line and 1,100 specialty stores in the U.S. Sears also offers a variety of merchandise and services through sears.com, landsend.com and specialty catalogs. Sears is the only retailer where consumers can find each of the Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard and Lands’ End brands together – among the most trusted and preferred brands in the U.S. The company is the largest provider of product repair services with more than 14 million service calls made annually.

About Ryan Companies US, Inc.
Ryan Companies US, Inc. is a leading national commercial real estate firm offering integrated design-build and development as well as asset, property and facilities management services to customers. For more than 67 years, Ryan Companies has used a single-source approach that offers flexibility in defining the scope of a project and strength in providing effective, timely solutions resulting in a higher certainty of success. In addition to its Chicago office, Ryan has offices in Minneapolis, Phoenix, Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa.