CHICAGO—The CBD has attracted thousands of new residents who want to live near their jobs. And in order to serve them, businesses on downtown's periphery have started expanding. Midway Building Services, for example, which provides cleaning services for commercial properties, has just purchased an 8,720-square-foot industrial building located in the Kinzie Corridor, at 1915 W. Hubbard St. Midway will expand and relocate their operations from 456 N. Oakley, also in the Kinzie area.
“I think the expansion of the local grocery stores downtown is driving their business,” says Frank Melchert, senior vice president of NelsonHill, the firm which sold the building. Mark Nelson and Michael Nelson, also of NelsonHill, worked on behalf of Midway.
“The Kinzie Corridor seems to be really hot,” Melchart adds. And while much of the activity seems connected to the conversion of the 550,000-square-foot Fulton Market Cold Storage into modern office space by Sterling Bay, downtown residents also look to this nearby neighborhood for services. “Whether they're planning a wedding or a party, they can quickly access new stores and services in the Kinzie area and they feel safe going there.”
One of the reasons Midway chose this freestanding, single-story building, one of the few in the neighborhood, was the abundance of parking. Many of other surrounding structures are “wall-to-wall with the neighborhood and [occupants] are left with street parking.”
NelsonHill declined to reveal the final purchase price, but Melchart says it was close to $90-per-square-foot. And the firm has several more Kinzie Corridor deals in the works. “We're all over it.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
