Manulife Wraps 1 MSF Chicago Buy

Core5 Logistics Center

Manulife Investment Management has acquired a 1 million-square-foot logistics facility in Joliet, Ill., on behalf of a managed account. According to CommercialEdge data, the property is Core5 Logistics Center, previously owned by DHL Supply Chain. Will County records show the Class A asset changed hands for $94.3 million.

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Core5 Industrial Partners delivered the facility in 2017 at 1023 E. Laraway Road, on a 60-acre site within the I-80 corridor. The cross-docked asset features 36-foot clear heights, 226 dock-high doors and four drive-in doors, as well as LED light fixtures. General Motors leased the entire property in July 2020, closing the metro’s largest deal of its kind in the third quarter.

The logistics center is roughly 6 miles southeast of downtown Joliet, in a dense industrial area that includes an Ikea Distribution Center and two Amazon distribution facilities. The property is also close to the 6400-acre CenterPoint Intermodal Center, where CenterPoint Properties started construction on two speculative warehouses totaling 2 million square feet this month.

One of the top industrial markets

Greater Chicago continues to be one of the top industrial markets due to its central location, strong transportation infrastructure and strong labor pool. A recent CommercialEdge report shows the metro had some 23 million square feet of space in the pipeline as of June, representing 2.7 percent of stock. The amount is second only to Phoenix, a market with more than 23.1 million square feet of industrial space underway.

When considering the market’s transaction activity, Chicago saw only three industrial properties larger than 100,000 square feet change hands in July, according to CommercialEdge data. The Core5 Logistics Center deal was the largest in terms of both asset size and consideration.

The second-largest was the $62.9 million sale of the Navistar facility in Melrose Park, Ill. Bridge Industrial acquired the 86-acre site, paving the way for the upcoming 1.5 million-square-foot Bridge Point Melrose Park industrial campus, which is slated for a mid-2023 completion.