Conor Commercial Real Estate Inks Full-Building Lease in Chicago

Last Mile Logistics Center I-55. Image courtesy of Conor Commercial Real Estate

Conor Commercial Real Estate has secured a tenant to occupy Last Mile Logistics Center I-55, its newly developed distribution facility in Chicago. The company signed what it describes as one of the world’s largest e-commerce retailers to a full-building lease of the approximately 316,500-square-foot property.

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Conor, an entity of The McShane Cos., acquired Last Mile’s 19.5-acre site from Grand Trunk Western Railroad Co. for just over $4 million in late 2017, according to Cook County records, and completed development of the state-of-the-art spec project in the first quarter of 2019. Carrying the address of 3507 W. 51st St. on the southwest side of Chicago in the Gage Park neighborhood, the single-story industrial building is a rare find: A last-mile distribution facility in Chicago proper. Last Mile’s location just off Interstate 55 allows for immediate access to more than 5.2 million people within a 30-minute drive. Among the Ware Malcomb-designed property’s other coveted amenities is access to a 3.1-acre park featuring outdoor seating, walking paths and a detention pond.

Cushman & Wakefield handled marketing of Last Mile on Conor’s behalf, and the firm’s Larry Goldwasser, Colin Green, Matthew Cowie and Jason West represented the company in the lease agreement. The new occupant is expected to create 600 new high-quality jobs at the facility.

The not-so-mysterious tenant

While Conor has not publicly disclosed the identity of the lessee at Last Mile, others have done so, including Crain’s Chicago Business, which exposed Amazon as the facility’s new occupant. The e-commerce giant’s commitment to the space comes as no surprise to industry experts. “In the midst of the global pandemic, Amazon continues to drive the Chicagoland industrial market,” according to a report by Newmark Knight Frank, which goes on to note that during the second quarter of 2020, Amazon was either operating in or committed to industrial space totaling in excess of 16.6 million in the Greater Chicago area for a total of 1.5 percent of the area’s entire industrial inventory. “[It’s] a staggering amount for a single user when considering the fact that the Chicago industrial market has more than 1.1 billion square feet.”

Amazon’s expansion of its footprint in the Windy City and environs this year involves a long list of deals, including the leasing of 750,000 square feet at an IDI Logistics property in Channahon in one of metropolitan Chicago’s largest industrial lease agreements in the first quarter of 2020. Additionally, Conor commenced construction on a 162,000-square-foot, build-to-suit distribution facility in Palatine, Ill., for Amazon during the second quarter.