CHICAGO—Saddle Creek Logistics Services' decision earlier this year to lease a new 1,114,575 square-foot build-to-suit distribution facility at CenterPoint Intermodal Center in Joliet was the largest industrial transaction and build-to-suit in the Midwest region of the US, but it also illustrates several important changes that have occurred in the distribution space and will govern it for the foreseeable future.

“It really speaks to the state of the market for 3PLs and how much they're growing,” Brian McKiernan, senior vice president, development of CenterPoint, tells GlobeSt.com. Saddle Creek, he points out, will relocate to CIC from a 590,000 square-foot facility in nearby Elwood, IL, nearly doubling their space. It plans to move by February, 2016.

3PLs specialize in warehousing, transportation, packaging and fulfillment services for clients, and throughout the nation, many are expanding. Their clients need more space, especially in dense urban cores like Chicago, Dallas and New Jersey, in order to satisfy consumer demand for same-day delivery of an increasing variety of products. Saddle Creek, for example, now has at least 41 locations nationwide and the firm has completed other recent expansions. Earlier this year, for example, it agreed to occupy a new 673,137 square-foot building at Gateway Commerce Center in the Metro East submarket of St. Louis.