Part of the challenge of a booming industrial market is finding enough labor to build and operate the buildings—both in the front office and in the warehouse.
Chicago Industrial Properties recently spoke with CRG Senior Vice President Jeff Lanaghan about the importance of locating new buildings close to a plentiful labor supply and what users can do to better attract and maintain skilled labor.
Location is the name of the game. Unemployment is at an all-time low across the U.S. and in Illinois (3.4% and 4.6%, respectively) due, in large part, to freelance jobs like Uber and Lyft. When it comes to finding employees for the industrial market, being located close to labor makes for greater odds of being selected by job seekers than a building further down the street, simply based on proximity. Location is not just important—it’s essential for filling factories, warehouses and manufacturing plants with the desired employees.
The challenge, though, is finding the right site. But how to do so? At the basic level, it’s looking on Google Earth to see where the rooftops or hiring a labor study group to determine which locations are best—or both. Often, Lanaghan will first pinpoint a location and then outsource a labor study to confirm the labor expected.
That’s how CRG secured the site for The Cubes at Country Club Hills—a 70-acre, 1.03 million-square-foot project located near I-57 and 183rd Street in Country Club Hills, Illinois—about 27 miles from Downtown Chicago, 40 miles from O’Hare International Airport and 17 miles from Midway International Airport.
“We chose the site because we recognized the site had fantastic access to labor,” Lanaghan said. “It’s off of I-57 North/South, with direct access into Chicago, and I-80 East/West, also accessible to labor in Joliet and Northwest Indiana. We confirmed it was near a plentiful pocket of labor and, as a result, we found a user within a relatively short time frame.”
Prior to Lanaghan joining CRG in 2020, he worked a lot in Joliet. Companies flocked to Joliet for its strong labor population, so much so the submarket started to feel oversaturated with employers, which thinned out the employee bank. Lanaghan knew that by shifting the focus a little to the east, CRG would be able to tap into a much larger labor pool, meaning the City of Chicago and Northwest Indiana. That was the thought process behind the location of CRG’s The Cubes, and Lanaghan said it worked out as expected. But that’s not to say there weren’t challenges throughout the process. While location is arguably half the battle, it’s not the only consideration.
One challenge is making sure a building has the amenities needed to attract and retain a user base. Companies are looking at potential buildings with more scrutiny, resulting in CRG’s additions of newly built office space, dock locks and battery-charging areas. Lanaghan also said outdoor picnic and recreational space, like bike paths and walkable trails, are important to consider.
Simply, employers are having to put forth more effort to maintain valuable employees, but it’s not just the frills they’re after. CRG has also seen an uptick in requests for basic safety features like storm shelters, especially following the tornado in Edwardsville, Illinois, in December of 2021. As a result, The Cubes will feature a shelter for employees in the case of a similar event.
In addition to The Cubes at Country Club Hills, CRG is in the midst of a similar project in Minneapolis, Minnesota, called The Cubes at French Lake, and the site was selected for the same reason—labor.
“In searching for a site around Minneapolis, CRG followed a similar pattern as for the site in Chicagoland,” Lanaghan said. “We identified a site where we anticipated a strong labor force before verification to ensure we could supply the volume our users were expecting.”
The Cubes at French Lake is expected to open in 2023. CRG is also in the process of seeking sites for other large-scale projects in and around Chicagoland.
