CHICAGO—The region's industrial market has gotten very tight, with more and more investors scrambling to buy up the available properties. But some investors have decided to jump into this lucrative market by developing their own product. Plymouth Meeting, PA-based Exeter Properties Group, for example, has just purchased a 38-acre land parcel at 163rd St. and I-355 in southwest suburban Lockport and will become a joint-venture equity partner with the seller, Tandem Development Group LLC, in developing the Lockport Business Center, a two-building speculative distribution center totaling 612,000 square feet.
“This way, they are able to build best-in-class real estate, instead of purchasing what the market will give,” Erik Foster, an Avison Young principal, tells GlobeSt.com. Foster and principal Mike Wilson, who both specialize in industrial capital markets, worked in conjunction with principals Brendan Kelly and Todd Heine, who specialize in supply chain strategies, in representing Tandem.
The development will contain many state-of-the-art features, including 32' clear height ceilings, ample parking and trailer spaces, and seven-inch-thick floors. It will include one building of 327,600 square feet and the other of 284,400 square feet, with quick access to I-355, I-55 and other transportation corridors linking the area to regional and national markets. The site is only 6.5 miles from the 159th St. interchange, which is typically less congested than surrounding interchanges.
The property is one of only three industrial land sites approved by the City of Lockport, Foster adds. “This is for bulk distributors who want to take advantage of state-of-the-art facilities with access to I-55, but don't want to be in the more established, and frankly, congested submarkets.”
“This continued speculative interest on the part of large money managers,” he says, “is very indicative about how people feel about the industrial market today,”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
