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CHERRY VALLEY, IL-Plans were announced this week for Rock 39 business park, which will be developed by Chicago-based Venture One Real Estate LLC on 323 acres on the north and south sides of Baxter Road, near the four-way interchange for I-39. The park, which is south of Rockford in the I-39 Corridor, is expected to have about five million sf of industrial buildings and be about a $250-million project when complete, says principal Mark Goode.

The property, which was acquired by Venture One during the past 18 months, was recently annexed by the Village of Cherry Valley and zoned for industrial use, Goode says. Land acquisition financing was provided by NorthSide Community Bank, based in Riverwoods. The park is within a half mile of I-39 and is near I-90 and I-88. The site is also about 18 miles from the Union Pacific Railway's Global III Intermodal Facility, in Rochelle, IL, and is about three miles from Rockford International Airport. Between 2,500 to 3,000 jobs are expected to be created when the park is fully occupied, Goode tells GlobeSt.com.

Venture One is planning 10 different buildings for the site, ranging in size from 100,000 sf to 1.2 million sf. The park already has about 25 acres under contract to be sold to a logistics company, Goode says. "They are in due diligence right now," he says. "We are hopeful that they will be able to start construction by year end." Although the logistics company will have its own building constructed, the bulk of the project will be build to suit, with not much speculative construction. "We think that this market is more of a build-to-suit market than a spec market," Goode says. The build to suit buildings will be for both sale and lease. Goode said he could not disclose asking rates. "Each company has different requirements in terms of trailer storage, building size and office space," he says.