More Specs on the Way for Bolingbrook

CHICAGO—Conor Commercial Real Estate, a member of The McShane Cos., has just launched a new 70-acre, class A multi-building industrial business park on recently acquired land in suburban Bolingbrook, one of the few remaining parcels in the immediate area available for development.

The four buildings that the company will finish by next summer at the new park, called Fountain Square Commerce Center, will join the growing number of speculative projects rising throughout Chicagoland as developers seek to take advantage of the projected growth in corporate spending.

“We've been tracking this piece of land in our acquisitions database for about ten years,” David J. Friedman, president of Conor CRE, tells GlobeSt.com. So when the owner was finally ready to sell this summer, Conor, which has significant development experience in Bolingbrook, was ready with a plan that reflects the changing nature of the local industrial market.

Ten or fifteen years ago, this portion of the I-55 submarket, about 35 miles southwest of Chicago, was still considered distant from the core, and mostly served large users. But a growing population has created a much larger workforce and encouraged a denser network of mid-size users to also settle here. And Conor plans to build structures with 32' clear heights ranging in size from 109,088 to 320,532 square feet, with spaces divisible down to about 40,000 square feet. The business park also features a 12-acre build-to-suit site that can accommodate a building of up to 216,000 square feet.

The Fountain Square center will feature a two-acre public park located at the southeast corner of the parcel at Remington Blvd. and S. Schmidt Rd. Both tenants and community residents will enjoy landscaped walking paths, seating areas and a central decorative fountain. And Conor will also incorporate a series of ponds throughout the site to provide even further touches of beauty to the contemporary business park.

“I-55 is now infill for the Chicago metro area,” Friedman adds. “Within Bolingbrook, this is one of the last large contiguous parcels suitable for industrial development.”

The pace of speculative construction in the area has certainly accelerated recently, and owners are finding tenants. “Speculative development drove second quarter deliveries as four buildings totaling 913,500 square feet were completed, accounting for over 90% of all second quarter completions,” according to a mid-year report on the I-55 submarket by Colliers International. “Remarkably three leases were successfully signed in these developments prior to completion, leaving only 411,600 square feet vacant.”

“Our basic view is that the market for new industrial development in the Chicago metro area is in the 5th or 6th inning,” Friedman says. “The belt that was constricting capital spending during the recession has been loosened,” and although like most experts he expects growth to remain more steady than spectacular, “our industrial market is going to benefit from that.”