Freudenberg Buys Own Site for $25M from IDI

AURORA, IL-Freudenberg Household Products, a cleaning product manufacturer, has purchased its 525,000-square-foot facility here for $25 million. The company had just leased the building for 10 years after it was completed by IDI last year.

The company used the facility, at Interstate 88 and Diehl Road, for production, storage and distribution of household goods. The build-to-suit was originally developed to accommodate the company’s headquarters in the Americas. The firm is based in Weinheim, Germany.

IDI is still under contract to expand the building by another 101,000 square feet, said Tom George, SVP and regional development officer. He tells GlobeSt.com that the expansion was part of the reason for the company deciding to make the purchase. “Also, the market is somewhat depressed, they realized they could get a good price for the property,” he says. The expansion should be complete by December, he says.

The local market is similar to the general status of the Chicagoland market, George says. “We’ve had higher vacancy now than in many, many years prior. I’m pretty sure you won’t see anything built for a while, whether it’s 100,000 square feet or one million square feet. The only thing you might see is more build-to-suit,” he says.

George Cibula, Rick Daley and Joe Bronson with Darwin Realty represented the buyer in the transaction, while Kirk Armour and David Prell represented IDI. The industrial real estate firm also handles the management of the property.