CHICAGO—The economic fundamentals underlying the regionalindustrial market are so strong that launching speculativedevelopments in certain submarkets has become a no-brainer,Daniel E. Fogarty Jr., tells GlobeSt.com.

The vice president of Conor Commercial RealEstate, a member of the McShaneCompanies, just recently helped the company finishNorthwest Pointe, a speculative industrial development in suburbanElgin. As reported last week, it just signed Glenview, IL-basedIllinois Tool Works, one of Chicagoland's largestand most successful corporations, to occupy 136,972-square-feet inthe 342,620-square-foot industrial facility at 2501 Galvin Rd.

Back in 2012, when Conor and its joint venture partner,Globe Corp. decided to go forward with thisproject, the vacancy rate for top-of-the-line product in theElgin/I-90 submarket had sunk to a historically low level. “Whenyou pulled out the older, obsolete product, stuff with maybe 18'clear heights, and just looked at product with 24' or more andother modern features, the vacancy rate was under 5%. That dynamicremains.”