CHICAGO—Bridge Development Partners, LLC, and its partner Akard Street Partners, LP have just fully leased 2475 Touhy Ave. and 1701 Nicholas Blvd., two new industrial properties in suburban Elk Grove Village. The properties were two of the first five speculative buildings launched by developers in the Chicago industrial market after the downturn.

Construction began on both in mid-2013 and both were delivered in early 2014. A joint venture of Bridge, Hillwood Investment Properties and Wanxiang America Real Estate Group was the original development group, which sold the properties to the Bridge/Akard partnership in February, when the buildings were a combined 20% occupied.

“These buildings were delivered at such a time that we were able to take advantage of a wonderful market upswing, and stabilize ahead of schedule at higher-than-expected lease rates,” says Steve Groetsema, director of leasing and development at Bridge. “We expect these prime in-fill locations to be the first to lease and the last to go vacant, and these tenants have all signed long-term leases and are making significant investments in their spaces as well.”

Both facilities sit within the heart of the O'Hare submarket, where proximity to the airport has ensured a steady stream of tenants, even for the many functionally obsolete buildings built as early as the 1960s. And both of Bridge's new buildings offer state of the art features such as 32' clear ceilings, ESFR sprinklers, exterior loading docks and 126-foot truck-court depths that are still rare around the airport.

The submarket has had a remarkable run for several years. According to a Colliers International report on the second quarter, its vacancy rate has fallen for eleven consecutive quarters. It now measures just 5.45%, down 52 bps from the first quarter rate of 5.97%. “Vacancy in this market has declined 219 bps over the past year,” the firm notes.

Bridge focuses on the development and acquisition of industrial and office real estate in the Chicago, South Florida and New Jersey regions. As reported in GlobeSt.com, in the past two years, it helped begin the revival of industrial construction in the Chicago region by launching spec developments in several submarkets.

In March 2015, Basic Enterprise Inc. moved from a 32,477 square foot unit in 2475 Touhy to a 69,967 square foot unit in a long-term renewal and expansion, and Labelmaster Packing Services/DGM Inc. immediately leased the unit vacated by Basic Enterprise, bringing the building up to 100% occupancy. Labelmaster was expanding operations from their previous location at 1100 Chase Ave. in Elk Grove Village.

Bridge also signed NNR Global Logistics USA, Inc. to a long-term lease for 119,752 square feet at 1701 Nicholas, or about 80% that facility. This was a significant expansion and relocation of NNR's Chicago operations from their former home at 765 Dillon Dr. in Wood Dale.

Finally, last month, NNR agreed to lease the remaining 30,768 square feet unit at 1701 Nicholas and use it for its head office, currently in Itasca, bringing that property to 100% occupancy.

Both Basic Enterprise and Labelmaster were represented by Jonathan Kohn of Colliers and Brian Carroll and Tom Gath of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the landlord.

NNR was represented by John Cash and David Haigh of NAI Hiffman and Tak O'Haru of White Cube, LLC and David Bercu, Tom Rodeno and Patrick Turner of Colliers represented the landlord.