CHICAGO—The Chicago Chapter of NAIOP has just awarded a pair of brokers from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank its 2015 Industrial Broker Transaction of the Year award. Jack Cozzie, senior managing director at NGKF, and Ladson Montgomery, senior vice president/principal of Newmark Grubb Phoenix Realty Group, received the award during the organization's Annual Awards for Excellence dinner last week in recognition of their representation of long-time client Saddle Creek Logistics. The 3PL's decision to occupy a 1,114,575 square foot build-to-suit distribution facility at CenterPoint Intermodal Center in suburban Joliet was the largest industrial transaction and build-to-suit year-to-date in the Midwest region of the US.

"We started the search last year and looked at about two dozen locations, both existing facilities and land parcels," Cozzie tells GlobeSt.com. And throughout the process, Saddle Creek, which handles multiple clients, kept adding customers and increasing its need for space.

Saddle Creek currently occupies a 590,000 square foot facility at 21051 W. Walter Strawn Dr. in nearby Elwood. It originally wanted about 750,000 square feet that they could expand if needed. But during negotiations, the 3PL realized it needed to nearly double its space in one jump.

"It is usually tough for 3PLs to make such a decision, unless they have a customer lined up, but this company is growing so fast it felt very comfortable adding more space," Cozzie says.

"Frankly, there was not a bad development proposal out there," he adds. "The development community in Chicago is very flexible," but CenterPoint could offer proximity to the I-55/I-80 interchange and the Union Pacific's Joliet Intermodal Terminal. "It has been a pleasure to work with the Saddle Creek team on this transaction and NAIOP's recognition of the deal is the icing on the cake."

Saddle Creek plans to relocate to the Joliet facility in February.