CHICAGO—Exel and JLL will unveil this week a proposed distribution building for Joliet of over 1 million square feet and 40' clear heights, a rare quality in the one billion square foot Chicagoland industrial market. JLL officials say they expect to secure a capital partner that will close on the land and fund the roughly $55 million development at 1151 E. Laraway Rd. in the master-planned Exel Campus I-80, and Exel, a leading supply chain management company, will build the building.

“This building is different than what has usually been constructed in the Midwest,” JLL international director John Huguenard tells GlobeSt.com. During the last five years, for example, 42 bulk distribution centers have been built in the Chicago region, and 72% have 28' to 36' clear heights. Only two buildings have heights of 36' to 40' and only two have heights over 40'. But JLL and Exel have surveyed the market and feel that strong demand exists for such product. “A lot of the e-commerce firms and retailers are continuing to push the box higher and higher.”

Huguenard is also confident that deep-pocketed investors will jump at this chance. “A lot of institutional capital is chasing product like this,” he says. But with all the competition, public REITs and the like are having a tough time finding existing properties to invest in and an increasing number are willing to fund speculative buildings and “take on a little more risk.”