CHICAGO—The region's industrial market continues to swing upward, and few developers are as active in the area as Duke Realty. The company just began construction on a 242,732 square-foot, build-to-suit industrial facility and headquarters for Shorr Packaging Corp. in its Butterfield Corporate Park, a campus off I-88 in suburban Aurora. The distributor of packaging products, equipment and services will consolidate operations from three different buildings into the new facility by spring 2016.

 “Due to our continued growth, we needed additional warehouse capability, but wanted to remain in the Aurora submarket for the convenience of our customers and employees and because of its proximity to the Chicago metro area,” says David Shorr, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Shorr. “Duke Realty was able to meet our location requirements, plus has the development capabilities to deliver the building we want. We are confident in their abilities to deliver our new facility.”

This is not the only major project that Duke has underway at Butterfield. The company recently agreed to construct a new 499,154 square-foot, build-to-suit warehouse for Fellowes Inc. at the same location. Fellowes will lease that new facility and use it as its main US distribution center. According to officials from Colliers International, it is the Chicago area's largest build-to-suit year-to-date.

The overall first quarter vacancy rate in the Chicago region fell to 7.59%, down 14 bps from the fourth quarter and the lowest rate since it hit 6.94% in the third quarter of 2001, according to Colliers. Developers broke ground on four projects in the first quarter which will add 1.6 million square feet to the region's inventory. And developers also plan to start 24 new projects, 5 build-to-suit and 19 speculative, during the second quarter which will add 7.8 million square feet of new inventory to the market.

Shorr's build-to-suit warehouse will include 32' clear heights and office space on the first and second floors. Duje will incorporate two drive-in doors and 20, 9' x 10' dock doors into the structural precast panel building. The 13-acre site also will include 156 automobile parking spaces and a 185' deep truck court.

“We are pleased that we are able to meet all of Shorr Packaging's space needs in the submarket in which they want to be located,” says Ryan O'Leary, senior vice president of Duke's Chicago operations. “Constructing a new build-to-suit facility for Shorr Packaging is an excellent way to ensure that they have adequate space for their office operations as well as efficient warehouse space.”

Trevor Ragsdale with JLL represented Shorr in the transaction, while Duke was represented by listing agents Traci Payette, David Prell and John Suerth with CBRE and Susan Bergdoll with Duke.