Although CenterPoint Properties Trust officials declined to place a value on the developments expected to occur over the next five years, at least one REIT analyst suggests it could be more than the $500 million the company expects to get from a portfolio sale to an Australian fund.

The sites totaling 738 acres involved were acquired near the bottom of the recession, said co-chairman and chief executive officer John S. Gates.

"The choices in the existing marketplaces are getting thinner, and thinner and thinner," Gates said in his company's most recent earnings conference call. "Build-to-suit activity is being driven by the scarcity in the existing marketplace."

The largest site is the 362-acre parcel near the intersection of I-88 and I-39 in Rochelle, where CenterPoint could build about 5.2 million sf next to the 1,200-acre Union Pacific Global III intermodal facility.

CenterPoint Business Center-McCook North will be built on 242 acres at the intersection of I-55 and First Avenue, next to the REIT's 171-acre McCook South development. The REIT could build up to 3.7 million sf near its redevelopment of a former Reynolds Aluminum plant. Gates says the McCook North is superior because it offers direct access to I-55, the Stevenson Expressway.

Along the Tri-State Tollway south of Grand Avenue, 1.5 million sf could be built at the $65-million CenterPoint Business Center—Gurnee. The REIT has 134 acres across Grand Avenue from Six Flags Great America. The land was owned by the theme park, which once planned to add a hotel or additional rides on the land.

CenterPoint Business Center—Gurnee will be the first industrial park in excess of 100 acres to be built in Lake County in 15 years, Gates said. Already, three build-to-suit prospects are eyeing 500,000 sf, he reports.

CenterPoint officials told the Gurnee plan commission in March the company is working with Herbert Stanley Co. to relocate into a 100,000-sf building.