Heitman Fills Up New Speculative Building

8601 and 8701 W. 47th St. in McCook, IL, were empty when Heitman purchased them earlier this year.

CHICAGO—Heitman Capital Management took a bit of a risk earlier this year when it purchased two empty warehouses recently developed by Dermody Properties on 47^th St. in suburban McCook, IL. But that risk now looks like a good bet. Assemblers, Inc. has just signed a long-term lease for the 353,322-square-foot building at 8601 W. 47^th St. According to Cook County records, Heitman paid $59.5 million in April for that and the adjacent 312,227-square-foot structure.    

Geoffrey Kasselman, executive managing director and head of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s national industrial practice, handled lease negotiations while also providing multi-market site selection for Assemblers, along with financial analyses, decision matrices, business case modeling, tenant improvements coordination, and architect and general contractor selection. Heitman was represented by Jason West, of Cushman & Wakefield.  

“While each user has markedly different businesses and space utilization dynamics, they all benefit from proximity and access to I-55,” says Kasselman. “The I-55 Corridor provides for superior access to their respective customers, vendors and suppliers, and also serves their labor needs; plus there is still an ample supply of modern, high-quality spaces for such discerning users. It further underscores the inherent strengths of this submarket.”

Founded in 1974, Assemblers is a private assembly and contract packaging company. The facility on 47^th St. will serve as its third Chicago-area facility in support of its growing third-party food production business.

Geoffrey M. Kasselman, executive managing director of NGKF’s national industrial practice.

Although Heitman bought these buildings vacant, property in this area has recently generated a lot of interest. As reported in GlobeSt.com, Bridge Development Partners, LLC, and its partner Akard Street Partners, LP, completed a 365,400-square-foot build-to-suit at 8201 W. 47th St. in 2014 for Freeman Decorating. In addition, a few months ago,Chicago Fine Motors signed a long-term lease for 31,547 square feet at Bridge Point McCook II, a 226,196-square-foot building located at 8401 W. 47th St. that Bridge finished in July 2015. That brought that building to 100% leased.

NGKF has recently completed several other significant industrial leases, also in the I-55 submarket. Kasselman and Jack Cozzie, senior managing director, represented Petco, a pet specialty retailer, in a 309,840-square-foot lease renewal. Petco extended its lease for one of its core distribution centers located at 3801 Rock Creek Blvd. in Joliet. Kasselman and Cozzie assisted the firm with a market condition assessment, competitive space analyses, financial analyses, tenant improvement coordination and lease negotiations. NGKF provides national real estate services to Petco through a dedicated account team led by J.R. McDonald, executive managing director in the firm’s Boston office. Jason West, represented the landlord, TIAA-CREF, in this transaction as well.

In the third transaction, NGKF’s Kasselman represented an undisclosed Fortune 500 manufacturer and distributor in a long-term, 51,900-square-foot lease in Hodgkins, along with NGKF’s Corey Chase, senior managing director, and Joshua Bauer, associate.

NGKF says the three transactions are valued in excess of $22 million in aggregate.