CenterPoint already has developed the 50-acre O'Hare Express Center on the south side of the airport with a $44-million special facility revenue bond issue, paying an interest rate of 3.15%. The market's largest industrial REIT's presence at the airport already includes 10 buildings totaling 1.8 million sf with another 2.5 million sf of "just-off-airport" facilities.

"We have a tremendous amount of interest on this site from several top tier air-freight forwarders and anticipate matching the success at O'Hare Express Center, our initial on-airport park," says CenterPoint vice president of airport development Chuck Henschel.

Sphere Development, a minority-owned firm, is a joint venture partner in the O'Hare Express North project. Also involved is the development team that acted as general contractor for the O'Hare Express Center -- FCL Builders Inc. and minority-owned UBM Inc., one of the largest minority owned construction firms in the region.