Bridge Industrial Breaks Ground on O’Hare-Area Project

Bridge Point Melrose Park II. Image courtesy of Bridge Industrial

Acting on behalf of developer Bridge Industrial, The Missner Group has broken ground on Bridge Point Melrose Park II, a speculative industrial building in Melrose Park, Ill., that will provide much needed supply for the mounting demand in the Chicago-area’s O’Hare industrial market.

To help make Bridge Point II a reality, Bridge has secured a $25.1 million construction loan through Associated Bank N.A., Cook County records show. The developer has also tapped Colliers’ Tom Rodeno, Matthew Stauber, and Patrick Turner to spearhead leasing activity for the project. Missner is on track to complete construction in the third quarter of 2023.

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The approximately 186,900-square-foot facility will be able to accommodate smaller industrial users in the market, as well as those seeking a space over 100,000 square feet. Designed by architecture firm Ware Malcomb, the property will feature 36-foot clear heights, drive-in doors, 30 exterior docks, more than 200 car parking spaces and 30 trailer storage spaces.

Evolution of a site

It’s befitting that Missner is acting as general contractor of Bridge Point II, as the company has a history with the site. Bridge Point II, which will sprout up near the 1.5 million-square-foot Bridge Point Melrose Park project, will occupy a 12-acre parcel that the developer acquired from a joint venture of Missner and Timber Hill for approximately $22.6 million in August 2022, according to Cook County records.

Carrying the address of 2100 N. 15th Ave., the property was previously a truck trailer storage and parking facility that Missner and Timber Hill had developed in 2019, after demolishing a 300,000-square-foot, 1970s-era building on the site.

Right project, right time

Now, the site—located within 6 miles of O’Hare International Airport and 15 miles of Chicago’s central business district—is destined for perhaps its most highly sought-after incarnation yet. “The feverish pace of activity witnessed in O’Hare during 2021 carried into the first half of 2022,” according to a Colliers industrial report. In the second quarter of 2022, O’Hare’s vacancy rate dropped below the 2 percent mark for the first time in history, falling to just 1.78 percent, marking the second-lowest vacancy rate of metropolitan Chicago’s 22 submarkets for the quarter.

A further indication of the demand for industrial space in the O’Hare submarket, Bridge Point II’s predecessor, Bridge Point Melrose Park, became 86 percent pre-leased in May 2022, well in advance of its late 2023 completion.