GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Clark Steel Leases 215,000 SF

ROCHELLE, IL-Cincinnati-based Clark Steel Framing Systems has entered into a 10-year lease for 214,820 sf at the first speculative facility within new 300-acre LogistiCenter in Rochelle. The building, located at 501 Stewart Rd., is 60 miles west of Chicago and 20 miles south of Rockford.

Situated on a 26.84-acre site at the northwest corner of the park, the 579,575-sf facility is designed as a two-user facility featuring a two-story entrance with tinted blue-glass and precast canopy on both ends of the building. The warehouse/distribution area of the building features a 32-foot clear-height ceiling.

Aaron Paris, executive vice president and chief operating officer with DP Partners, the developer of the LogistiCenter, says the site is attracting several third-party logistics users, as well as manufacturers with a prominent transport component. The site has access to Interstates 39, 88, as well as the Union Pacific Railroad and the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.

“LogistiCenter’s rail access is what drove the Clark Steel decision,” Paris says. “When they occupy the space in July, they will be bringing in steel coils via rail to process and manufacture metal studs for the residential and commercial construction industries.”

Upping the competitive ante, Reno, NV-based DP Partners had the park designated as a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) for companies that import and export goods. Once tenants move into the park, they must contact the US Customs & Border Protection agency and request FTZ activation. “It’s a complicated process, but well worth it,” Paris tells GlobeSt.com.

Lee & Associates’ James Planey and Jeffrey Janda, principals, and Denise Dalicandro, associate, represented DP Partners in the transaction. Clark Steel was represented by Dan Knudson, and Ken Hulbert, both vice presidents in the Corporate Services Group of Newport Beach, CA-based GVA Daum. The tenant’s cooperating brokers were Daniel Tobin and Kent Sandstedt, both senior directors in the Des Plaines office of GVA Williams.

Clark Steel Framing is a manufacturer of cold-formed, light-gauge, steel-framing products for the construction industry. The firm is a wholly owned subsidiary of the 154-year-old Itochu International Inc., with headquarters offices in Tokyo and Osaka.