Aventura firm pays $55 million for land in Chicago

Aventura-based Elion paid $55 million for about 1,100 acres of vacant land in a Chicago business park catering to distribution operations.

Elion’s managing principal, Shlomo Khoudari, told Crain’s Chicago Business that the company bought the land at a business park called RidgePort Logistics Center to develop industrial buildings for distribution and fulfillment operations.

Elion, located at 2875 Northeast 191 Street in Aventura, said in a company statement that it could develop up to 12 million square feet of industrial space on its newly acquired Chicago land, located near the interchange of Interstate 55 and Interstate 80.

Elion bought the land from a venture that included Chicago-based Ridge Development, a company Elion had worked with before, and Ridge will retain partial ownership of the 1,100 acres in a development partnership with Elion.

Khoudari told Crain’s Chicago Business: “The world needs strategic places, and RidgePort is one of those.”

Elion’s investment came amid a recent flurry of industrial development announcements in Chicago. For example, Amazon.com just disclosed plans to build a 700,000-square-foot warehouse in Chicago suburb Joliet.

Chicago’s industrial vacancy rate fell to a 15-year low of 7.1 percent in the first quarter, Colliers International reported. [Crain’s Chicago Business] — Mike Seemuth