CHICAGO—CenterPoint Properties Trust has just sold a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on the North Side to Alpina Manufacturing, the latest in a series of sales that has helped further push down an already low vacancy rate on the city's North Side. Alpina, a Chicago-based picture frame manufacturing company, which currently has several facilities in the metro area, plans to consolidate its operations into the newly-acquired property at 6460 W. Cortland Ave. Although the price was not disclosed, Cook County records indicate that Alpina paid $2 million.
Larry Goldwasser, Colin Green, and Brad Weiner of Cushman & Wakefield represented CenterPoint in the transaction. Ed Lowenbaum of Lowenbaum REP, a Chicago-based commercial real estate firm, represented Alpina.
The free-standing building is surrounded by a mix of residential, industrial, and retail properties. It has been vacant since 2009, and Alpina's plan to occupy it could be another sign that the Chicago North industrial submarket is recovering from the downturn.
The area has experienced lower vacancy rates and an increase in user and investor sales so far this year, according to C&W's market research. The overall vacancy rate decreased 40 bps to measure 4.2% in the second quarter of 2014. User sales measured 702,796-square-feet sold by mid-year, a 48.2% increase from the 474,142-square-feet sold a year ago. And investment sales measured 135,983-square feet sold year-to-date, up from the 129,300-square-feet recorded last year at this time.
The price for industrial property in the submarket remains low. The Alpina property, for example, sold for $3.3 million in 2007, county records show. And the largest sale during the second quarter, of a 359,374-square-foot warehouse at 1819 N. Major Ave., was for only $500,000.
Still, says Green, “the sale of 6460 W. Cortland will only tighten the already limited supply of clean functional buildings in this submarket.”
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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.
