Avison Young has been awarded the exclusive sale listing for a two-building, Class A industrial campus in the greater Chicago market. The buildings, located at 1600 Ritchie Court in Rochelle, Illinois, were designed with significant infrastructure for specialized manufacturing and were recently used to manufacture rail cars for transportation agencies throughout North America.
Avison Young principals Michael Fonda, Chris Lydon and Hugh Williams, all based in the company’s Rosemont, Illinois office, are representing Nippon Sharyo Manufacturing, LLC, a global railcar manufacturer that is a subsidiary of Nippon Sharyo LTD, based in Japan. The company stopped using the facility for manufacturing last month; it is available immediately.
The 57-acre campus includes a 480,845-square-foot and a 329,710-square-foot building, with a total of 38 cranes and a significant amount of state-of-the-art equipment. There also is approximately 63,000 square feet of office space within the two buildings with a mezzanine that offers approximately 30,000 square feet of additional office buildout space.
“This highly specialized campus environment provides a unique opportunity for a railcar or other heavy manufacturing company to move in and quickly begin production using the existing infrastructure,” said Fonda. “There are few sites of this size and caliber in the U.S. that can offer such a plug-and-play opportunity, which would dramatically shorten time to market and reduce up-front operational expenditures.”
The facilities have a significant amount of valuable, in-place infrastructure, such as laser cutting machines, welding systems and brake presses as well as annealing, sandblasting and paint spray booths.These facilities were designed to manufacture 120 new passenger railcars annually and can be further customized to suit additional manufacturing processes.
Completed in 2012 and located on 34.92 acres, the 480,845-square-foot East Building includes 34,000 square feet of office space. The 329,710-square-foot West Building, completed in 2014 and located on an adjacent, 22.16-acre site, features a 28,995-square-foot office space. Among the specialized infrastructure items are cranes ranging from 5.5 ton to 33 ton capacities with hook heights up to 30 feet, ceiling heights ranging from 34-foot to 40-foot, bay sizes up to 80 feet wide, eight-inch thick floors, 4,000-amp power with 3-phase transformers and fiber optic service throughout each building.
The buildings also have state-of-the-art security and an automated gate system, which allow for an efficient 24/7 operation. Both buildings front on I-88 and offer proximity to the I-39 and I-88 interchange. The property is located in the Lee-Ogle County Enterprise Zone, which allows for certain business incentives that can provide 10 to 20 percent savings on some project’s up-front investments.
“Rochelle offers industrial businesses tremendous advantages, given its privately owned electrical and utility systems, the superior access to dual Class 1 rail providers, and the proximity to major highway systems,” said Jason T. Anderson, economic development director for Rochelle. “The city has an aggressive plan that focuses on building and maintaining a strong road, rail and utility infrastructure to support the area’s growing industrial base.”
The campus is also located in proximity to the Rochelle Global Intermodal terminal, a 1,200-acre facility that has the capacity to ship more than 25 trains and 3,000 containers/trailers daily. O’Hare International Airport, Chicago Midway International Airport, Quad Cities International Airport and Chicago Rockford International Airport are within 30 to 96 miles of the properties.