WILL COUNTY 2015 Large Business Developments
01/15 ROMEOVILLE: Meridian Design Build has begun construction on a
188,166-sf cold storage facility in Romeoville. The facility is located on 35
acres at Airport Rd. west of Southcreek Parkway.
01/15 FRANKFORT: Inland Real Estate Corp. has acquired Prairie Crossings in
Frankfort for $24.7 million. The Prairie Crossings acquisition consists of
109,000-sf of gross leasable area. Tenants include Bed Bath & Beyond,
Sports Authority and Office Depot.
01/15 ROMEOVILLE: The Opus Group will build two speculative industrial
buildings in the Paragon Business Park, located off Taylor Rd. in
Romeoville. The buildings will be 133,800-sf and 121,200-sf respectively
and will be completed in the summer of 2015.
02/15 JOLIET: Arc Logistics Partners acquired Joliet Terminal Joliet Bulk, Barge
& Rail (JBBR) from CenterPoint Properties Trust for $216m. Assets include
crude oil unloading terminal and a 4-mile crude oil pipeline, which are under
construction and are scheduled to be completed in mid to late April. With a
capacity of approximately 85,000 barrels of crude oil per day, the Joliet
terminal will have approximately 300,000 barrels of storage and a 4-mile
pipeline connection to a common carrier crude oil pipeline.
02/15 SHOREWOOD: Bob’s Discount Furniture has leased a 761,966-sf
warehouse and distribution center in the Heartland Corporate Center in
Shorewood. The company is expanding it’s retail furniture business in the
Chicago area.
02/15 NEW LENOX: HAS Prime Care has completed the development of a 30,000sf business center at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. The two story
administrative building is on the east side of the hospital campus at 1900
Silver Cross Blvd. HAS Prime Care has now developed three medical
buildings on the campus totaling more than 100,000-sf.
02/15 BOLLINGBROOK: Forest Envelope Company has leased 48,024-sf of
industrial space at 309 East Crossroads Parkway. Forest Envelope, a
manufacturer and printer of specialty envelope products, is more than
doubling the size of its operation as the firm relocates from its current
23,000-sf building in Lisle.
03/15 WOODRIDGE: Wimmer Transportation Services, a Chicago-based trucking
and freight delivery company, has signed a long-term lease to occupy 17,280sf at the newly completed second phase of Park 55 in Woodridge. The lease
with Wimmer is the first in the 180,480-sf distribution facility facility located
along I-355 at 2143 Internationale Parkway.
03/15 JOLIET: IKEA home furnishings retailer announced it is submitting final
plans to the City of Joliet that would advance the development of its
previously approved distribution center. Originally approved in 2007, the
revised project will sit on 72 acres at the Laraway Crossings Business
Park. The 1.4 million-sf distribution center would serve the inventory needs
of at least 10 IKEA stores throughout the Midwestern U.S. as well as
customer fulfillment.
04/15 JOLIET: Con-Way Freight announced the grand opening of $12 million,
41,600 sf freight facility opening at 1950 Terminal Court. This new service
center will support a nearly doubling of the Joliet workforce (now 70+ jobs).
The facility includes 80 dock doors and capacity to move in excess of 1.6
million pounds of freight per day, doubling the ability of the previous facility.
04/15 JOLIET: Saddle Creek Logistics Services has signed a lease for a new 1.1
million square foot warehouse that will have more than 200 employees and
250 construction jobs. Construction has begun with move-in scheduled by
the end of the year. The new facility is near the junction of I-55 and I-80, the
Union Pacific terminal and BNSF Logistics Park Chicago. (Center Point
Intermodal)
04/15 BOLINGBROOK: Ferrara Candy Co. will build a 250,000-sf packaging facility
in Bolingbrook, in addition to their 750,000-sf distribution center. This
expansion is due in part to increase manufacturing capabilities in Illinois for
candy products sold in Wal-Mart stores. The expansions will bring over 100
new jobs to the Chicago metro area. “Ferrara’s planned network
enhancement in the Chicago region support Walmart’s commitment to
purchase an additional $250 billion in products supporting U.S. jobs by 2023.
04/15 JOLIET: Caterpillar, Inc. will move two production lines from its Joliet plant
to Mexico that will result in a loss of 230 jobs at the Joliet facility. The plan is
in order to “remain cost competitive”. Under the plan, the company will
move production of gear and engine oil pumps and valves to a sister plant in
Monterrey, Mexico. The transition is expected to begin in late 2016 and be
completed by the middle of 2018. It’s part of a series of cuts at the factory,
where 770 workers are employed, compared with 7,000 in the late 1970’s.
04/15 TINLEY PARK: Emerson Process Management has leased 25,488-sf of a
100,000-sf facility at 7650 W. 185th St. in Tinley Park. Emerson Process
Management assists companies in controlling and managing their water and
energy processes to cut costs.
04/15 ROMEOVILLE: PAE has leased 723,291-sf of space at 1070 Windham
Parkway in Romeoville. PAE is a government services firm that supports the
US Postal Service in addition to multiple federal clients.
05/15 WILMINGTON: Ridge Development is developing two facilities in
RidgePort Logistics Center for the new headquarters of Consolidated
Distribution Corporation (CDC). The foodservice supply chain logistics
company is combining five facilities into a 111,244-sf freezer build to suit
and a 574,867-sf (expandable to 1,078,867-sf) ambient distribution facility.
05/15 LOCKPORT: PCCP LLC has partnered with Panattoni Development Co. to
acquire a fully entitled 51-acre land parcel in Lockport, a southwest suburb
of Chicago. The joint venture plans to develop Lockport 355, a four-building
industrial park totaling 846,510 square feet. on the site. Construction of the
first phase of the park is slated to begin in June, with completion scheduled
for the first quarter of 2016.
06/15 JOLIET: International Transload Logistics has signed a long-term lease for
303,061-sf of a 485,476-sf facility at 3801 CenterPoint Way within the
CenterPoint Intermodal Center. The company specializes in domestic and
international logistics and full service warehousing.
06/15 JOLIET: CenterPoint Properties will develop an 8.67-acre build-to-suit
wheeled storage yard for California Multimodal, LLC, a full service 3PL that
provides warehousing and trucking facilities nationwide.
06/15 SHOREWOOD: Clarion Partners has announced development of a 319,00-sf
spec industrial building in the Heartland Corporate Center at I-55 and Rte.
59 in Shorewood. The facility will have 32’ clear height, 327 parking spaces,
63 trailer stalls and 168 dock positions.
06/15 ROMEOVILLE: Holladay Properties has partnered with WoodSpring
Suites to develop the first WoodSpring Suites Hotel in Romeoville. Located
at 1093 Windham Parkway, the four-story hotel will feature 116 rooms with
in-room kitchens, free high-speed Internet and guest laundry facilities. The
hotel is slated to open in April 2016.
06/15 PLAINFIELD: Spirits, beer and wine company Diageo has purchased a 37acre site at 14020 Coilplus Drive adjacent to its manufacturing facility in
Plainfield. The purchase price was $10 million. The existing 246,000-sf
building on the site will be used to store finished case goods from its bottling
facility across the street.
06/15 ROMEOVILLE: Hillwood, a Perot company, has acquired 39 acres at
Pinnacle Business Park located in Romeoville. The Dallas-based company
plans to develop four class A industrial buildings totaling 638,110-sf. The
acquisition marks Hillwood’s first Chicago area development. The first two
buildings to break ground this year will each be 200,000-sf.
06/15 JOLIET: Whirlpool Corporation has leased 752,000 sf of a 1 million-sf
building at 3851 Youngs Road. The building is the first built in Clarius Park,
a business park developed by Chicago-based developer Clarius Partners that
still has room for three more industrial buildings. Whirlpool will use the
facility as a finished-goods warehouse and ship products from there and will
employ 60 – 70 people.
07/15 JOLIET: Hillwood Investment Properties has acquired 49 acres of land at
Laraway Crossings Business Park in the I-80 submarket of Chicago in
Joliet, Illinois. Hillwood plans to build a Class A distribution center totaling
746,772 square feet, which will be expandable to over 1 million square feet.
The project’s groundbreaking is scheduled for August with completion
expected midyear 2016. The building will offer modern amenities such as
average 36’ clear height, 76 exterior docks, 72 trailer parking stalls, 154 car
parking spaces, and ample column spacing of 56’ by 49’ with availability to
expand.
07/15 JOLIET: CenterPoint Properties announced that The DeLong Co. is
expanding its company space at CenterPoint Intermodal Center in Joliet. The
company will occupy 25 acres of land within CIC-Joliet to operate its
transload operation. It plans to relocate its 15-acre transload operation from
Channahon to the proposed 25-acre site, which is located in-between the
Union Pacific and BNSF intermodal yards.
07/15 JOLIET: Cullinan Properties has purchased a 264-acre site located at the
northeast intersection of I-55 & I-80 in Joliet. The property was purchased
from O & S Holdings, LLC. Cullinan Properties, Ltd is a multi-disciplined real
estate firm that develops, manages and owns retail, residential, office,
medical, mixed-use and industrial properties throughout the US.
07/15 ROMEOVILLE: Ashley Furniture has opened a new retail and distribution
center at 1045 W. Crossroads Parkway in Romeoville. The facility is
424,525-sf.
07/15 BOLINGBROOK: LG Electronics MobilComm has extended its 377,630-sf
lease at 1251 115th Street in Bolingbrook. The facility is the central hub for
the company’s mobile communications division.
08/15 JOLIET: Amazon.com has announced Joliet will be the site of the online retail
giant's first fulfillment center in Illinois — a move that will create 1,000 fulltime jobs. Amazon is retrofitting a 500,000-square-foot warehouse in the
Laraway Crossings Business Park at Route 53 and Laraway Road to fill
online orders and process small items, such as books, electronics and
consumer goods.
08/15 BOLINGBROOK: Swap.com, an online consignment that sells baby and
maternity clothes has signed a five-year lease for a 361,176-sf facility at 850
Veterans Parkway in Bolingbrook. The company plans to have 700
employees by the end of 2016. The deal represents major growth for the
Bolingbrook-based company, the U.S. subsidiary of Helsinki, Finland-based
Netcycler. They currently lease 66,000-sf at 3 Timber Court in Bolingbrook.