"Lake County land for industrial development is very scarce," Rosenberg says. "A lot of communities in Lake County just aren't open to industrial at this time. Zion is really welcoming it, and trying to build its industrial base back up and create jobs."

No tenants have been secured for the new facility yet, though Rosenberg says the company has several interested in renting the entire building. The building could also accommodate multiple users. The first phase of the park, completed last year, was a 75,000-sf distribution center constructed for FedEx on a 25-acre site, which included a fueling station and 400 trailer parking spaces. Once completed, the park is expected to offer a total of 2.2 million sf. Asking lease rates in the park are around $4.75, net, Rosenberg says.

Sites for build-to-suit facilities can accommodate a building of up to 1.2 million sf, Rosenberg says. "When they're done with this, they'll be able to accommodate a multitude of users in any size desired," says Mike Prost, a principal with Lee & Associates of Illinois LLC, leasing agent for the park.

The site, on land that was formerly two farms, is less than three miles from Interstate 94 and in close proximity to Union Pacific rail lines, Rosenberg says. Panattoni also developed the 1.2-million-sf Amhurst Lake Business Park in nearby Waukegan. Development of Trumpet came when space ran out at Amhurst, Rosenberg says.

"Rents are good there, and we like the user profile and saw good business is southeastern Wisconsin," Rosenberg tells GlobeSt.com. "We saw that if you could have big sites in Lake County, there was very little competition at all. We saw quite a bit of demand for this type of space, and we really think we can create a catcher's-mitt effect near the state line for people who might otherwise go north of the border."

Rosenberg says due to the lack of available space in the county, less new product comes onto the market, which offers around 65 million sf in total industrial space, Rosenberg says. "A lot of users want to stay there, and for the amount of available space, there's robust activity in this submarket," Rosenberg says. "Rents held stronger and there's been better activity here than in any other submarket. Activity has been down across the board lately, but we've still seen quite a bit and have been happy with activity given the current environment."

Once the 150,000-sf building is leased up, Rosenberg says Panattoni will look at constructing a 600,000-sf speculative distribution facility at Trumpet, similar to one the company has recently constructed just north of Kenosha, WI. Another 300,000-sf speculative building may follow as well, Rosenberg says.

"We saw this piece of land as having all the attributes of what makes a business park successful," Rosenberg says. "We're in a good market…where vacancies have been low, and it's a middle ground between the two states. You have excellent labor, and quite a bit of executive labor living in the North Shore, so you're close to decision-makers as well."

In phase two, work was also completed on space devoted to wetland preservation, including ponds and wetland detention basins. The park's environmental design was completed by Chicago-based Spaceco Inc. Panattoni is also using recycled material for the roads.