It’s true that industrial construction has slowed throughout the Chicago market. That doesn’t mean, though, that developers aren’t still planning major industrial projects here.
Why? The Chicago area remains one of the top locations for industrial end users thanks to its location in the center of the country, robust transportation infrastructure and strong workforce.
Evidence of this is taking place now in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, Illinois, where contractor PREMIER Design + Build Group recently completed construction work for the first phase of The Logistics Campus, a master-planned logistics campus in Glenview for industrial real estate developer Dermody Properties.
Joe Ahrens, senior vice president and industrial market leader with PREMIER, said that the location made this the ideal site for Dermody’s development.
“It was all about the location,” Ahrens said. “The land is located right off the interstate. In terms of the infrastructure, there’s already been a lot of work done to the roads. We also had a good partner in Glenview welcoming the development. Glenview was committed to seeing a project of this magnitude completely through. These factors made it very attractive for the development to locate there.”
This is a unique project for several reasons. Chief among them? The emphasis on preserving the land surrounding the campus.
An example of this? According to information provided by PREMIER, Dermody worked with one of the largest arborists in the country to transplant mature trees on the 232-acre site. Nearly 400 trees were dug up and moved to a temporary nursery, which was cared for by a local landscaping company. That company also handled replanting the trees as trails were built through the greenspace for tenants and community members to enjoy nature on the campus.
This might seem like an unusual step. But the Village of Glenview has high standards for tree preservation. The village considered preserving these trees as a key part of the project.
“There is a perception of industrial sites being giant concrete monoliths with pavement everywhere,” Ahrens said. “That is not what this project is.”
Land preservation was just one unique challenge. PREMIER also had to navigate permitting challenges early in the construction process because of the complexity of The Logistics Campus. This required PREMIER’s team members to adapt quickly to keep the project’s construction on schedule.
Ahrens said that the challenges of this project were mostly tied to the sheer size of it.
“A lot of different municipal partners had to be consulted,” he said. “There were a lot of people involved with this project, a lot of people paying attention to what was happening on this site. We had to get all these partners on the same page with one plan. That can be challenging. But everyone did get on the same page here because everyone was so committed to getting this project done.”
To ensure that the construction schedule was followed, Dermody Properties and PREMIER maintained regular communication with each other and with the project’s design consultants, trade partners and local government bodies.
Ahrens said that the work done early in the planning phase helped make sure that The Logistics Campus project proceeded smoothly.
“This project was set up very well for success by a lot of people who put a lot of work into it before PREMIER was brought to the table,” he said.
Phase 1 of The Logistics Campus includes more than 1.2 million square feet spread across five buildings. An additional 2 million square feet is available for future phases.
After PREMIER completed the first phase’s final work, which included connecting the public utility infrastructure and wrapping up work on landscaping, pavement, pathways and signage, construction on Phase 1 officially ended with all five buildings achieving LEED Silver certification.
While no one can predict the future, Ahrens said that he expects to see an increase in industrial construction in the Chicago market in 2025.
As Ahrens said, every market is cyclical, including Chicago’s industrial market. He pointed to 2010 and 2011 when developers delivered a large amount of spec industrial space. Back then, industry observers wondered how quickly tenants would absorb this space.
The answer? They absorbed it quickly. That resulted in even more spec industrial construction in 2012 and 2013. That space took a little longer to fill. But once it did, developers again began building industrial spaces.
That’s what is happening today, Ahrens said. In the early days of COVID, developers rushed to build more industrial space to meet the demand from consumers who wanted products delivered to their doors quickly. Today, it is taking slightly longer to fill existing buildings, which has resulted in a slowdown in new spec construction.
Ahrens, though, said that this is just another cycle. And soon, once those spaces do get absorbed, more building will take place.
“What follows one of these slower periods is more building,” Ahrens said. “It’s a cyclical thing. We are just on the verge of seeing another uptick in new construction.”
