DEKLALB, IL-A venture of Chicago-based Clayco and Lincolnshire, IL-based Venture One Real Estate LLC recently purchased the remaining 350 empty acres at the industrial Park 88 here. The companies are marketing the site for six build-to-suits up to 1.5 million square feet.

Park 88 already has about 2.6 million square feet of buildings at the 565-acre park, including a 1.5-million-square-foot distribution center for Target and two facilities for St. Paul, MN-based 3M Corp. totaling more than one million square feet. The two partners have been marketing and developing the projects at the site, located in the I-39 Logistics Corridor at the interchange of Interstate 88 and Peace Road, since 2003.

Mark Goode, a principal at Venture, tells GlobeSt.com that the owner of the park had to return the property to the lender, Citizens First National Bank, in 2009. Citizens hired the two companies to continue their work at the park, though nothing has been developed at the park since 2007.

Now, the managers of the site own the rest of the vacant property, which includes five pad-ready sites for buildings up to 587,100 square feet, and one shovel-ready site that can hold up to a 1.7-million-square-foot, cross-deck distribution facility. If entirely built out, the park can hold up to seven million square feet, Goode says.

He declined to discuss the price paid for the acreage, but says there’s already movement on deals. “We have quite a few proposals that we’re working on right now, from 100,000 square feet to one million square feet,” Goode says. “The pad-ready sites, built from when we created the detention ponds, allow us to complete a build-to-suit in five months, that’s a real benefit to some companies that want to make a decision and then have a building up fast.” First Midwest Bank financed part of the acquisition.

The city also recently pledged its undying support for the park, through official statements by the mayor and city staff, as a bringer of jobs and tax revenue. In return, the city has promised to provide a fast-track permitting process, as well as a tax abatement incentive program.

Instant Insights /

Clayco, Venture Buy Park 88 Remainder, Plan BTS

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