The Altorfer Caterpillar Dealership, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will complete its major three-transaction relocation across the Chicago area this spring, moving its Construction Services and Power Systems divisions from Elmhurst, Illinois, to new locations in Mokena, Addison and East Dundee, Illinois.
This high-profile relocation began shortly after Altorfer’s early-2018 acquisition of Patten Industries, the Caterpillar dealer in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana. The deal expanded Altorfer’s managed Caterpillar service territory to include 33 locations across portions of Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Indiana.
As part of the acquisition, Altorfer leased Patten Industries’ former Elmhurst location, a 130,000-square-foot, three-building property on 26 acres. This location later sold to a developer in 2019.
JLL Senior Vice President Brian Carroll assisted by Newmark Group Managing Director Tom Gath, was selected to represent Altorfer in a three-transaction, simultaneous relocation strategy.
For the Construction Services division, Altorfer required two large land sites in the north and south along Interstate-80 and I-90. An identical build-to-suit plan was designed for both locations. Fifteen sites were reviewed and Altorfer chose 23.7 acres at 88th Ave and 191st St. in Mokena, just south of I-80, as well as 23 acres along Illinois Route-72 in East Dundee, just east of Route-25 and north of I-90. Both sites were carved out of larger parcels and faced significant development challenges.
Scheduled to be completed in April of 2021, the Construction Services highly specialized leading-edge build-to-suit design includes two buildings totaling 67,000 square feet.
Ground-breaking took place at both locations in the summer of 2020. The design for each location includes a 60,000-square-foot, pre-cast, maintenance building with 30-foot clear heights for the servicing, repair and rebuilding of engines, heavy material handling and earth moving equipment.
Both buildings feature 14 drive-in doors, two docks and 13,000 square feet of office area for equipment rental and sales. Additionally, the building design includes six 10-ton and two five-ton cranes, 10-inch concrete floors, 2,000-amp service, LED lighting, triple basin oil separation and recovery systems, high-performance floor coatings, an engine testing room with cooling tower and 5,000-gallon underground water tank, compressed air, elaborate air exhaust system, and trench drains throughout.
A second 7,000-square-foot building will provide equipment and vehicle wash and welding services. Fifteen acres will be heavy-poured concrete, asphalt paving and hard packed stone aggregate to allow vehicle and equipment movement, storage and display. Each design allows for 30,000 to 40,000 square feet of building expansion.
For the Power Systems division relocation, in Spring of 2020, Altorfer purchased a 95,625-square-foot building on 7.5 acres located at 301 Mitchell Court in Addison that was built in 1982. Major modern renovations are close to completion with the parts warehouse seeing the addition of technical service-repair with one 10-ton and two 15-ton cranes, new 1600-amp service, 10 docks, 17 overhead doors, compressed air loop, an equipment wash bay and specialized exhaust system.
The existing 20,000-square-foot office was totally rebuilt to house the Altorfer Chicago corporate administrative personnel and Power Systems’ sales, rental and project management functions. The 7.5-acre site is being redesigned to accommodate the fleet storage of large mobile generators, temperature control units, and air equipment, fully screened with new landscaping, heavy concrete, new sewer and storm systems, expanded detention, security and parking for 140 cars.
Mokena, East Dundee, and Addison each provided up to $2 million in economic benefits.
Harris Architects and Northern Builders are responsible for the design, general contracting and development work for the two build-to-suits and renovations in Addison.
