The Missner Group Inks 198 KSF Chicago-Area Lease

The Missner Group has signed a 197,587-square-foot lease at its recently developed industrial facility at 1200 W. 145th St. in East Chicago, Ind.

The tenant is third-party logistics provider Hearn Industrial Services, that will use the space for the storage and distribution of automotive manufacturing parts in support of Ford Motor Co.’s South Side Chicago plant.

With this deal, the industrial facility reaches full occupancy. The new space also marks the tenant’s first leasing agreement with The Missner Group, as Hearn Industrial Services is expanding its operations in the region.

Totaling 249,600 square feet, the facility was completed as a speculative project. It sits on an approximately 15-acre lot, close to interstates 90 and 94, allowing easy access to nearby rail lines and in the Chicago and Northwest Indiana metros. Gary/Chicago International Airport is nearby, while downtown Chicago is 22 miles away.

The facility features 32-foot clear heights, up to do dock positions, drive-in doors, build-to-suit office spaces, 226 vehicle parking spots and 28 trailer parking spots. The property is the second fully leased building as part of The Missner Group’s joint venture with Realterm. The duo developed three facilities, the first one being an 80,000-square-foot project in Addison, Ill. The third development comprises 130,354 square feet in Chicago’s Stockyards Industrial Park.

Chicago’s elevated vacancy

Chicago’s industrial vacancy rate clocked in at 12.3 percent as of June, according to a recent Yardi Matrix industrial report. The metro has the highest rate in the top 25 U.S. markets. Nationally, the sector has been facing elevated vacancy, with the national value reaching 9 percent in June, the highest point of this decade. The elevated industrial vacancy rate follows a mix of factors as the sector is recalibrating, with more than 2 billion square feet of industrial deliveries recorded between 2020 and 2024.

One recent lease in Chicago is Link Logistics’ 300,000-square-foot renewal with Axis Warehouse & Logistics in Bensenville, Ill. The full-building agreement is the largest renewal deal in the O’Hare industrial market signed in the first half of this year.

Another example is a 152,014-square-foot long-term lease signed by Seefried Industrial Properties and an affiliate in Elgin, Ill., closed in February this year. A nonprofit organization signed the deal, becoming the anchor tenant at the landlord’s 320,946-square-foot property, using the space as its main distribution center.