CHICAGO—First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. has just found a long-term tenant for its new speculative building in southeast WI, and plans to break ground today on another spec building in the same business park.

Located in the Village of Somers, WI in Kenosha County, the Chicago-based company's First Park 94 is a master-planned business park that can eventually accommodate about 4.6 million square feet of development. Although First Industrial did not disclose the name of its new tenant, the 601,439-square-foot building will be fully occupied.

“We are excited to lease our initial building at First Park 94 which will be the primary Midwest distribution hub for our tenant,” says David Harker, executive vice president for First Industrial. “We are launching our second building at the park which will total approximately 600,000 square feet with expandability. We aim to serve other leading companies that can also benefit from this efficient logistics location and the area's skilled labor force to meet their customers' needs within the region.”

Although leasing activity in southeast WI was a bit slow throughout much of 2015, that followed several very robust years, and absorption remained healthy due to several big build-to suits that were occupied. Furthermore, this new lease may indicate a pick-up in leasing activity for 2016.

First Park 94 is accessible to I-94 from three 4-way interchanges and offers frontage along the Canadian Pacific Railway with potential rail access. The cross-dock building features 36' clear heights, 185' truck courts, generous trailer parking, extensive dock-high loading, skylighting, and an ESFR sprinkler system.

“We look forward to further growth within First Park 94 and the community with the construction of our second building at the project as well as serving potential build-to-suit requirements,” says Adam Moore, regional director for First Industrial in Chicago.

First Industrial's team for the development is comprised of Moore, Jim Schlundt, operations director, and Brad Kluever, senior investment associate. Whit Heitman, Sam Badger and Brad Weiner of NAI Hiffman and Roger Siegel of the Dickman Co. and Tony Haning of JLL assisted First Industrial with the transaction.

Instant Insights /

First Industrial Fills One Spec, Starts Another

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