Bridge Development Capitalizes on Strong Chicago-Area Industrial Demand

Bridge Point North Business Park. Image courtesy of Bridge Development Partners

Bridge Development Partners LLC has sold Phase II of its Bridge Point North Business Park outside Chicago in Waukegan, Ill. AEW is the new owner of the three-building industrial project, which encompasses 927,000 square feet of state-of-the-art distribution accommodations.

Located 40 miles north of downtown Chicago and 50 miles south of Milwaukee, Bridge Point North is a 225-acre master-planned business park that made its debut in 2017 with a 1 million-square-foot initial phase consisting of two buildings, one of which is currently occupied by Amazon. Bridge’s disposition of Phase II comes just months after the project’s completion in the second quarter of 2019. “The buildings were 68 percent leased to two tenants with strong weighted average lease term remaining and we wanted to capitalize on the investor demand for well-leased buildings in a Class A location,” Nick Siegel, vice president with Bridge Development Partners LLC, told Commercial Property Executive.

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Phase II consists of the 544,400-square-foot Building III, the 154,300-square-foot Building IV and the 228,300-square-foot Building V. Sited at 1350 Bridge Drive, Building III is a cross-dock facility that counts Bolke-Miller Co. as its anchor. The contract packaging company made an early commitment to Building III, preleasing approximately 300,000 square feet under a long-term agreement in 2018. Building IV and Building V, carrying the respective addresses of 3971 Lakeside Drive and 1550 S. Waukegan Road, are both single-loaded facilities. Automotive accessories provider Thermoflex recently staked a claim to Building V in its entirety, inking metropolitan Chicago’s largest new industrial lease of the second quarter.

Bridge Point North Business Park, Building IV. Image courtesy of Bridge Development Partners

Bridge relied on CBRE to market Phase II for sale, with the real estate services firm’s Michael Caprile, Zach Graham and Ryan Bain closing the deal with AEW. The investment community’s response to the opportunity to own Phase II was “very strong,” according to Siegel. “The Chicago market overall has historic low vacancy rates and Lake County in particular does not have a large development pipeline, as it is very infill and Class A product is hard to construct,” he added.

Going through phases

Bridge utilized 50 acres of Bridge Point North for Phase II, but there is still room for additional construction at the sprawling business park. The company is planning Phase III, which will yield four facilities totaling approximately 920,000 square feet and constitute the final phase of the Bridge Point North development. Bridge expects to complete the last four buildings in mid-2020, and if the current leasing climate holds, the final stage of the park should receive a warm reception from industrial space users.

Metropolitan Chicago recorded its 36th consecutive quarter of positive net absorption in the second quarter of 2019, resulting in a year-to-date total of roughly 7.3 million square feet of take-up, according to a report by CBRE. Lake County led the way in the second quarter, logging 1.6 million square feet of absorption.