CHICAGO—Advertising Resources, Inc. has just signed a lease to occupy a previously vacant, 456,479-square-foot building at 456 International Pkwy. in suburban Minooka, another sign that industrial leasing in the region has continued to accelerate. The food packager will keep the space it occupies in suburban Alsip, including its national headquarters, and expand into the Minooka space, owned by Liberty Property Trust. One of the top reasons the firm chose Liberty's building, located in the Liberty Business Center, was its potential to expand to about 700,000-square-feet.
“We were looking at state-of-the-art vacant buildings that were expandable,” Tom Boyle, a principal with Transwestern, which represented ARI, tells GlobeSt.com. This meant a pool of about thirty properties to start with, but by focusing on the I-80 submarket, Transwestern narrowed it down to around five or six options. ARI originally considered occupying a brand new facility, but the development process would have taken a year, and the company's business had expanded so fast that it needed to move quickly. A vacant property, on the other hand, would offer the opportunity of a quick move-in.
“We are encouraged by our leasing team's ability to connect with a prospective tenant's vision for space and provide the flexibility to make it reality,” says Don Schoenheider, vice president and city manager, Liberty Property Trust. “We look forward to developing this park in the coming months and years.” Britt F. Casey, Christopher P. Lydon and Al Caruana at Cushman & Wakefield, helped Liberty lease the building.
Liberty Business Center Minooka sits on 212 acres and provides quick access to I-80 and the intermodal facilities in the Joliet area. Liberty officials say that the park's additional sites offer room for build-to-suit opportunities ranging from 500,000- to 1.2-million-square-feet.
ARI's new home has other features essential to ARI's operations, Boyle adds. It is under ten years old, and therefore, has the most modern features, including a 32' clear height. In addition, it's a cross-docked facility and has plenty of power for the company's machinery. Most importantly, however, is that option to expand. “They are very bullish on the future.”
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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.
