The project, called the Deer Run Industrial Park, the will be one of the nationÕs largest private developments and, as a Superfund site, one of the largest brownfield initiatives. CenterPoint plans to build as much as 17 million sf of distribution and manufacturing space in an industrial park adjacent to a new intermodal rail yard to be operated by the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. All together, Deer Run will occupy 2,242 acres.

"This was a remarkably complicated process," Mike Mullen, CenterPoint COO, told GlobeSt.com. "But considering all the different agencies we had to work with, and the countless obstacles to overcome, the process went well. Now we can do what we do best at this site, namely develop industrial property."

A keystone of the entire project is the intermodal rail facility. Chicago, as railroad nexus of the United States, is already the transit hub of the nation for intermodal container shipping. The new facility will reenforce ChicagoÕs preeminence in that field, and attract distribution companies to the Deer Run complex. "The opportunity to locate close a major [intermodal] distribution complex will be a powerful incentive for manufacturers, warehousers, food processors and other customers of freight transportation to be within the park," says Mullen.