CHICAGO, CHIPPEWA FALLS, WI—A major metro area is not always the best site for giant distribution facility. That's what Mills Fleet Farm found out after a 12-month site selection process led it to Ryan Companies' Lake Wissota Business Park in Chippewa Falls, WI. The Midwest retailer recently signed a long-term build-to-suit lease with the Minneapolis-based developer, which will complete a, 1.13 million-square-foot building on a 70-acre parcel by next spring.
The $65 million facility will allow Mills Fleet Farm to modernize its supply-chain operations. With 37 locations across MN, WI, IA, and ND, Mills Fleet Farm serves the Upper Midwest as a retailer of lifestyle products helping active, outdoor families and suburban and farm consumers.
A Chicago-based brokerage team from Avison Young, consisting of principal Brendan Kelly, and vice president Nick Esposito, coordinated a team of more than 30 persons from Mills Fleet Farm and investment firm KKR, which purchased the retailer in 2016, in evaluating multiple locations. Minneapolis, a major metro area in the center of the company's territory, was considered and rejected.
“The cost of operating there was significantly higher,” Esposito tells GlobeSt.com. Instead, the team decided to focus on several possibilities within roughly 50 miles of eventual winner Chippewa Falls. A key consideration throughout the search was that Mills only sought a building that would primarily ship goods to its stores, and not directly to consumers. Therefore, “locating it in a more tertiary market was still beneficial.”
And a search of this region in the western section of the state did not reveal any existing building that could really handle the scale of Mills' operations, Esposito adds, especially since it needed the flexibility to further expand as well as modernize. The company also wanted this big project finished quickly, so the Avison Young team was doing a full-scale analysis of all potential sites around Chippewa Falls, so that when the final decision was made, “we were ready to hit the ground running.” Overall, the development timeline was reduced by more than 12 months.
Kelly and Esposito were also responsible for securing a $12.3 million incentive package. Mills expects to employ more than 325 people at the distribution center on completion.
Avison Young's Chicago-based project management team consisting of vice president Michael Tenuta and assistant project manager Daniel Faczek provided pre-construction project management services and will continue to represent Mills Fleet Farm during construction, while working with representatives from Ryan Companies.
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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.
