LBA Expands Footprint With $56M Chicago-Area Purchase
The industrial asset’s sale price has nearly tripled over the past two decades.
LBA Logistics has purchased Principal Real Estate Investors’ 413,112-square-foot Niles Industrial Center in metro Chicago for $55.5 million, according to CommercialEdge information. The asset previously traded for $21.4 million two decades ago.
The building came online in 2004 on nearly 21 acres at 6420 W. Howard St., roughly 16 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. Thoroughfares such as Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 14 run within less than 3 miles, while the Chicago O’Hare International Airport operates some 9 miles away.
Niles Industrial Center comprises two buildings encompassing 210,458 and 202,654 square feet. The park features clear heights reaching 28 feet throughout each building, as well as a total of five grade-level doors and 52 docks.
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The tenant roster includes athletics company Vitrychenko Academy and Sky High Sports, CommercialEdge shows. Additional leases are held by swimming pool supplier SCP Distributors, medicine provider TwinMed, as well as Christmas decoration company BESTPYSANKY.
LBA Logistics invests in industrial assets throughout major U.S. markets, focusing on core, core-plus and value-add, as well as development opportunities, with a minimum purchase price of $10 million.
The company kicked off 2025 with a flurry of acquisitions. In Port Wentworth, Ga., LBA made a similar investment, buying a 2006-built asset spanning 491,329 square feet for $46 million.
On the opposite end of the vintage spectrum, the firm bought a 2023-completed property in Glendale, Ariz., for $39 million. That 220,240-square-foot building was fully leased at closing.
Chicago’s affordable industrial assets attract investment
Metro Chicago’s industrial sale volume stood at $790 million during the first four months of 2025, according to a CommercialEdge report. The market comfortably led investment across the Midwest, nearly doubling Twin Cities’ second place of $422 million.
However, assets traded for an average of $96 per square foot, significantly under the national average of $129, the same source shows. While industrial sales prices in The Windy City spiked 40 percent compared to 2019, the growth still lagged the national average increase of 62 percent recorded during the same interval.
Niles Industrial Center changed hands for $134.3 per square foot, above both the market and national average. A sale aligned with metro Chicago’s average closed in April, when G3 Enterprises purchased a 380,269-square-foot asset for $34.4 million, or $90.4 per square foot.
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