Kraft Foods Signs on with Grubb & Ellis for Property Management

About one month after Kraft Foods Global Inc. renewed about 1.5 million square feet in Ohio and Pennsylvania from ProLogis, Kraft selected Grubb & Ellis Co. as its facilities service provider for its sites throughout North America. Grubb & Ellis will provide a full range of facilities management services for Kraft’s headquarters in Northfield, Ill. (pictured), and all of the food maker’s office and R&D sites across North America. The assignment covers 41 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada totaling more than 4 million square feet of property and builds on Grubb & Ellis’ long-standing transaction services relationship with Kraft. On Sept. 17, CPN reported that ProLogis renewed its contract with Kraft Foods, which will continue to lease approximately 675,000 square feet at ProLogis Foreign Trade Center, a distribution park in the Columbus, Ohio, metropolitan area. In Eastern Pennsylvania, along the I-78 corridor, Kraft renewed approximately 800,000 square feet with a new lease agreement signed in April. Kraft will continue to lease space in two buildings at the ProLogis Kraft Distribution Park, which the company has occupied since 1999. Kraft currently leases approximately 3.2 million square feet from ProLogis at locations throughout North America. Earlier this year, the companies worked together to complete building improvements at a Kraft-occupied, ProLogis distribution facility in Morris, Ill., to achieve a LEED-CI Gold certification. The Kraft-Grubb & Ellis relationship is being led by Jim Walter of Grubb & Ellis’ national accounts team. Kraft is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies with annual revenues exceeding $37 billion, more than 100,000 employees and more than 180 manufacturing and processing facilities globally. Grubb & Ellis is one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate services and investment companies.