CHICAGO—Sterling Bay helped transform the city's Near West Side from an industrial zone to a hot office market, and is now poised to launch another office project on a former industrial site, this time on the banks of the Chicago River in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

C.H. Robinson, one of the largest logistics providers in the world, will occupy the 207,000 square foot build-to-suit located at 1511 W. Webster Ave. that Sterling Bay will develop and manage. Sterling Bay acquired the vacant 4.18 acre site, once occupied by a tannery, earlier this year.

The Eden Prairie, MN-based 3PL will use the three-story building as its Chicago office headquarters and has signed a 15-year lease for the entire property – a significant expansion from its current 160,000 square feet at 1840 N. Marcey St. about one-half mile south along the river. The firm expects to move in late 2018.

“Over the past decade, Chicago has emerged as our largest center of employment, and one of our most important global markets,” says Pat Nolan, vice president at C.H. Robinson. “Chicago's longstanding history as a multimodal transportation hub, its thriving tech industry, and its rich talent pool make it an ideal place for us to do business. We look forward to continued growth in Chicago in the years to come.”

C.H. Robinson has nearly doubled its Chicago workforce in the past ten years. Its nearly 2,000 Chicago employees account for almost 15% of its global workforce.

“We chose this building because its location is convenient for our employees, many of whom take public transportation to work. It's on a great piece of riverfront property and the built-to-suit aspect will enable us to design a custom space that our current and future employees will love,” says Mike Ryan, vice president at C.H. Robinson.

Sterling Bay began buying up and renovating properties in the Near West Side's Fulton Market area more than four years ago when the city decided to construct a Green Line El stop there. It's best known for transforming a former cold storage building at 1000 W. Fulton into 1KFulton, the new home for Google. In addition, in the last several years the company has redeveloped other Near West Side properties such as 111 N. Canal and 400 S. Jefferson. And along with Google, a mix of traditional and high-tech companies like Twitter, GoGo, Hillshire Brands, SAP, IDEO and Uber have flocked to these renovated buildings.

“We are excited about the opportunity to transform this underutilized property, to beautify a portion of the riverfront and to bring jobs to this location,” says Sterling Bay principal Andy Gloor.