With the acquisition of two parcels totaling 56 acres of land near the Illinois-Wisconsin border in Zion, Industrial Outdoor Ventures (IOV) is moving forward with the development of its Trumpet Park Spec Development, a pair of planned Industrial Service Facilities (ISFs). Combined, the two projects could offer almost 1,200 truck trailer parking spaces, more than 26,000 square feet of maintenance and service buildings and have a construction cost in excess of $35 million.
ISFs, commonly referred to as low-coverage industrial properties, provide supply chain infrastructure solutions to essential industries such as transportation, bulk material distribution, last-mile logistics, heavy equipment, and the utility industry, among others.
Although IOV has developed new ISF’s in other parts of the country, this represents its first ground-up development in the Chicago Industrial marketplace.
“For many fundamental reasons, our first ground-up development in the Chicago market is a matter of right place, right time,” said Tom Barbera, CEO and Founder, IOV. “The Chicago Industrial market, stretching up to Southeast Wisconsin, is and will remain strong and has all of the characteristics that will make this well-conceived development a long-term investment.”
IOV has closed on separate land acquisitions, with an institutional seller, including a 47-acre parcel located at the southwest corner of Green Bay Road and Russell Road and a 9-acre parcel located adjacent to the FedEx Freight Terminal west of Green Bay Road and 9th Street. The sites are located approximately two miles east of I-94. Financial terms of the land transactions were not disclosed.
“This is a great and unique opportunity for IOV and the Illinois/Southeast Wisconsin marketplace,” said Eric Johnson, Sr. Vice President of Development and Acquisitions for Industrial Outdoor Ventures. “The land we’ve acquired offers tremendous optionality and flexibility to meet the varying needs of current and future industrial and related space users in the market.”
He noted that undeveloped land sites of any substantial size with this type of zoning and entitlements in close proximity to major industrial markets are extremely rare. IOV has spent the last four to six months arranging the proper zoning and entitlements. The land they acquired was previously zoned for agricultural uses.
“The IOV purchase of the Trumpet Park land for offsite trailer parking/maintenance will be a welcome addition to the SE Wisconsin/Lake County marketplace,” said Chris Volkert, Colliers International. “There is currently a dearth of trailer parking opportunities, and this development is just what the market wants. The continued growth in user space needs and consistent occupancy within the existing inventory block has created an increased need for this sought-after asset class.”
The planned ISFs are located immediately south of historically popular and in demand business and industrial parks and within close proximity to four active submarkets—Southeast Wisconsin, Kenosha County, Northern Lake County and Lake County. Since 2013, new inventory totaling 97.0 million square feet of space has been added, creating a total of more than 228 million square feet of industrial space.
Notable users, with significant warehouse, distribution and logistics operations, in the area include Uline, Ta Chen, Geodis, APL, and Honeywell, among many other.
According to Johnson, the land for the new ISFs is fully entitled and can be used for truck parking, maintenance/service facilities and/or material storage as well as trucking terminals. While original plans call for one 47-acre and one 9-acre ISF, the larger parcel could be used for individual ISFs in 5-7-acre lots depending on market demand.
IOV currently is completing the design phase of the new projects. Original plans for the 47-acre site include the development of a 15,000-square-foot maintenance/service facility equipped with 10 grade-level overhead doors. The site could feature as many as 1,000 parking stalls. Plans for the smaller, 9-acre site include the development of an 11,800-square-foot maintenance/service facility. The site will feature 180 parking stalls.
Additional features of the individual ISFs include fenced and secured storage yard, fully lit security lighting, heavy duty asphalt surface, keypad access, location in a Class A corporate park and low Lake County taxes.
The design team for the IOV projects include Spaceco which is providing civil and surveying services and Arete Design Studio, providing architecture, planning and design services. The development timeline will likely follow an early Spring 2023 start of construction with the new ISFs delivered in Fourth Quarter 2023.
Chris Volkert, Ned Frank and Jeff Devine, all members of Colliers International in Chicago, represented the institutional seller in the transactions. IOV has named Volkert, Frank and Pat Hake exclusive marketing representatives for the new ISFs.
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