ARI Takes 456K at Liberty Business Center

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.