ROCHELLE, IL-Black Earth Cos. has chosen Grubb & Ellis Co. to market its 200-acre Interstate Transportation Center industrial park here. The property, just north of and connected to the new Union Pacific Global Three Intermodal Terminal, can hold up to 12 buildings for a total of about 2.8 million square feet.

Black Earth had announced this $100 million center back in 2003, in a partnership with the Alter Group. However, John Basile, SVP with Grubb, says the park was shelved until the intermodal facility was completed. Alter is no longer on the project, he tells GlobeSt.com. Black Earth is looking for build-to-suit projects rather than speculative development at the site. The park can hold buildings ranging from 100,000 to one million square feet.

He says Grubb is very close to signing a deal for a portion of the park. “I can’t really give out details, but it is a manufacturing company,” Basile says. “There’s been a significant interest in new manufacturing projects in Rochelle.”

The new center will focus on food and cold storage as well as manufacturing, vs. traditional dry warehouse needs. “Rochelle has very competitive utility rates, and these companies have refrigeration needs that are heavy consumers of power,” Basile says. The city, along the Midwest distribution lines of Interstate 88 and Interstate 39 and the western Union Pacific railroad line, is part of a Foreign Trade Zone, which allows importers to achieve savings on inbound receipts.