ROCKFORD, IL—Although sometimes troubled, the Rockford area economy has had some significant bright spots, perhaps none brighter than the aerospace industry. And now the sector has attracted the interest of an out-of-state investor. Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp., a Freehold, NJ-based public equity REIT, just acquired a 38,833-square-foot industrial building located at 5795 Logistics Pkwy. for $5,200,000. The built-to-suit property was completed in 2012 for BE Aerospace, Inc. The company signed a 15-year net-lease which now has 12.7 years remaining. The building sits on about 7.42 acres at the Rockford International Airport, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago, and is expandable by an additional 80,000-square-feet.

"BE Aerospace is a global leader in manufacturing aircraft products and we welcome them to our roster of high quality tenants,” says Michael P. Landy, president and chief executive officer. “The Rockford International Airport has been experiencing substantial growth and this marks our second acquisition at this airport.”

Aerospace has a long tradition in Rockford and has shown a great deal of strength in the last few years. Woodward Inc., for example, a company founded in Rockford in 1870, broke ground in late 2012 on a $200 million aerospace manufacturing plant in nearby Loves Park, which Eric Voyles, the former executive director of the I-39 Logistics Corridor Association, a local business development group, told GlobeSt.com will eventually bring in as many as 1,700 jobs.