Wanxiang and Clarius Readying Pilsen Spec

CHICAGO—Google’s plan to move into the Fulton Market area has already begun transforming that neighborhood, long the center of food storage operations. These older businesses around Google’s future home may no longer fit into the neighborhood’s new high-tech vibe, and developers have cast their eyes on a number of properties several miles outside the Loop as they look to provide alternatives.

The Wanxiang America Real Estate Group and Clarius Partners, LLC, for example, recently acquired the former APL Logistics facility at 2302 S. Paulina in Chicago for $6.6 million and plan to build, on a speculative basis, a 162,000-square-foot warehouse building targeted at food distributors. The partners plan to demolish the existing building and eventually develop up to 400,000-square-feet in three major buildings on the 22.68-acre site, dubbed Pilsen Park Chicago.