Elk Grove Village is looking to attract industrial real estate investors — by sponsoring bowl game

Could college football be the key to industrial real estate growth? One suburb is betting that it is.

Elk Grove Village announced Tuesday it will be the sponsor of the 2018 Bahamas Bowl on Dec. 21 in Nassau, Bahamas, according to Crain’s. The game will officially be called the “Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl,” which uses the tagline Elk Grove has used since 2015 to lure businesses to its booming industrial parks.

Village officials hope the sponsorship, which cost $400,000, will help Elk Grove reach a wider audience of businesses seeking industrial real estate in a sector that has been growing alongside the rise of e-commerce.

Elk Grove has particularly benefited from growth in the sector. The suburb, just west of O’Hare Airport, has an industrial vacancy below 3 percent, an all time low. An additional 4 million square feet of industrial real estate is planned for the community, which is already home to the largest industrial park in the country.

“We’re hoping we reach some business owner that is hopping around the Midwest to locate,” Elk Grove Mayor Craig Johnson told Crain’s. “We are a true economic engine … and we want to make sure that engine keeps going.”

While the industrial market is hot in Chicago and nationwide, the O’Hare submarket has truly taken off.

Rents in the area are close to four times the suburban average for industrial space, and space is truly at a premium: Brennan Investment Group recently bought one of the last remaining vacant sites in the submarket — in Elk Grove Village — with plans for a 1.2-million-square-foot complex. [Crain’s] — Joe Ward