TH Real Estate buys massive 1M sf suburban distribution center

The unit of Nuveen’s $72M purchase is the biggest industrial sale of its kind in almost 3 years

The building and Mike Sales, head of TH Real Estate
The building and Mike Sales, head of TH Real Estate

TH Real Estate bought the massive Whirlpool distribution center in Joliet for $72 million, the biggest industrial acquisition of its kind in nearly three years.

The New York-based unit of Nuveen bought the 1 million-square-foot complex at 3851 Youngs Road from a venture led by JPMorgan Chase, according to Crain’s.

JPMorgan and Clarius Partners of Chicago completed the building in 2013, and Whirlpool signed a lease there in 2015.

The sale to TH Real Estate was the most expensive deal for a non-refrigerated industrial property in the Chicago area since December 2015, when a five-building, 711,000-square-foot property in Roselle sold for $83.5 million, according to Real Capital Analytics.

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The Chicago industrial market remained hot in the second quarter as asking rents hit a record high of $5.58 per square foot, according to Newmark Knight Frank’s second quarter industrial market report.

A number of large industrial properties have changed hands recently, including a 600,000-square-foot complex in suburban Hodgkins that Midwest Industrial Funds just bought for $17 million.

The city is seeing its own share of industrial activity, including a $169 million, 2.2 million-square-foot project on the Southeast Side from Northpoint Development. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien