Trammell Crow Breaks Ground on 8 MSF Chicago Campus

November 5, 2024

Development Chicago Industrial MidwestMoreNews

This project’s first phase will include a nearly 800,000-square-foot spec warehouse.

Rendering of Plainfield Business Center's first industrial building in Plainfield, Ill. — Part of Plainfield Business Center, the speculative warehouse was designed to have 40-foot clear heights and 80 dock doors expandable to 160. *Image courtesy of Trammell Crow Co.*

Trammell Crow Co. has broken ground on the first building at Plainfield Business Center, an industrial campus to total more than 8 million square feet in Plainfield, Ill. The 788,000-square-foot speculative warehouse is slated for delivery by next fall.

The industrial building will take shape on approximately 52 acres at 26220 W. 143rd St. When complete, the cross-dock facility will feature 40-foot clear heights, 80 dock doors expandable to 160 and 211 trailer parking stalls. Matt Mulvihill and Phil DeBoer of CBRE represented TCC in acquiring the land and are marketing and leasing the property.

TCC is currently planning the future phases of Plainfield Business Center. Harris Architects designed the entire project, Krusinski Construction Co. is the general contractor, while Kimley-Horn and Associates serves as civil engineer.

The site is some 40 miles from both downtown Chicago and Chicago O’Hare International Airport. The location provides proximity to both interstates 55 and 80, two of the Chicago area’s major thoroughfares.

TCC Senior Vice President Josh Udelhofen said, in prepared remarks, that the location’s desirability will be heightened by local road improvements. The entire 143rd Street will be extended to both east and west, with the goal of eventually rerouting Highway 126 onto that street to reduce downtown Plainfield congestion.

Ample activity

The Interstate 55 corridor in Chicago’s southwestern suburbs is seeing a rising average vacancy in industrial space—although only to 2.5 percent—driven in large part by the delivery of two speculative developments totaling 438,200 square feet, according to a third-quarter report from Colliers.

This could be either a blip or a trend, because industrial absorption remained strong—1.3 million square feet in the third quarter—even as two more spec projects totaling 967,000 square feet are currently underway. Colliers predicts an increase in overall vacancy, followed by a lull in construction.

In late October, Stream Realty Partners secured $63 million in financing for its five-building Chicagoland Industrial Portfolio. JLL Capital Markets arranged the five-year, fixed-rate loan. Two of the five buildings are in Mokena, Ill., in the Joliet submarket.