Reusable Container was represented by Champion Realty Advisors LLC managing director Rich Antczak along with Drew Wadley of Corporate Realty Advisors, while building owner First Industrial Realty Trust was represented by Pete Roberson and John Suerth of CB Richard Ellis.

"Reusable Container can hit a lot of their customer base from here, since it's located minutes from a four-way interchange to Interstate 55 and has access to a lot of the other highways in the area," Antczak tells GlobeSt.com. "This building is also a crossdock facility, which is what they were looking for." Constructed in 1996 as one of the first buildings in Crossroads, the facility also offers 24-foot clear ceilings, 21 exterior loading docks, a drive-in door and ample parking.

Asking lease rates at the building are around $3.50 per square foot net, but Reusable Container got a less expensive rate, Antczak says. Tenant improvements to the company's new space cost First Industrial about $300,000. First Industrial has owned the property since 2005, when it was acquired from Principal Real Estate Investors as part of a 14-property portfolio for about $11.7 million.

The property is located in the Interstate 55 submarket, where overall occupancy rates are around 84%, according to Cushman & Wakefield's Q1 market report. Asking lease rates in the submarket range from $4 to $6 per square foot net, according to the research. Antczak says though there's little new construction now, the vacancies seen in previously developed spec space is weighing the market down.

"Chicago has always done well with industrial," Antczak says. "We don't see the large peaks and valleys like other metropolitan areas but we do have challenges. Vacancy is at about 16%, probably the highest I've seen in a long time, and it's very much a tenant's market right now."