CHICAGO—The industrial market in the Chicago region has seen very robust demand this year, but Southeast Wisconsin may be its hottest submarket. And more companies are stepping up to take advantage of its growing strength. Chicago-based Bridge Development Partners, LLC, for example, has just started a 400-acre business park in Kenosha County at Hwy. 142 and I-94, across from the new 500,000-square-foot Amazon.com fulfillment center. At the same time, Bridge sold 200 of the acres to Uline, Inc., and will oversee the parcel's development.

Uline, the distributor of packing materials headquartered in nearby Pleasant Prairie, WI, plans to build a nearly three million-square-foot campus, with initial plans for a one million-square-foot warehouse facility and 50,000-square-feet of office and call center space. Uline plans to take occupancy in mid-2016. The firm will consolidate three facilities in Waukegan and North Chicago into this campus and move about 475 jobs.

“As Chicago continues to expand, the Kenosha area is well-positioned for continued growth and job creation,” says Bridge principal Tony Pricco. “The city of Kenosha and state of Wisconsin are very pro-business and aggressive in pulling companies across the state line from Illinois. We anticipate a lot of activity for the remaining sites, especially for large users that are having a hard time finding sites further south that can accommodate large buildings with even larger future expansion needs.”