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SAUK VILLAGE, IL-Appleton, WI-based Warehouse Specialists Inc., which became the first tenant in what is expected to be a five-million-sf, $150-million industrial park on Illinois Highway 394 at Cottage Grove Avenue, has moved into 308,000 sf of the first building at 325-acre LogistiCenter. The third-party logistics and warehousing firm is taking 308,000 sf at 21700 Mark Collins Dr., which is scheduled to be expanded to 776,333 sf next year.

"We needed rail and highway access, and we needed a quick turn-around," says Warehouse Specialists Inc. president and chief executive officer Robert J. Schroeder, whose company will use its 308,000 sf for distribution of paper by rail and truck. In addition to a state highway, the industrial park also is bounded by the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway tracks and is within 15 miles of five switching yards with intermodal capabilities.

The industrial park is being developed by Reno, NV-based DP Partners and the village, which expects to reap $60 million in tax revenue as well as 2,000 jobs. "Sauk Village has become one of the great job centers of the Southland region--second only to Chicago Heights in job creation," says Sauk Village Mayor Roger G. Peckham.