Amazon inks lease for another suburban warehouse

For Amazon, its warehouse cart in the Chicago area is never full.

The e-commerce behemoth inked a lease for a 501,000-square-foot distribution center at 3940 S. Lakeside Drive in Waukegan, Crain’s reported. Located in the Bridge Point North industrial park, the facility is around the corner from a 627,000-square-foot fulfillment center Amazon also leases, the report noted.

Amazon, which signed millions of square feet of leases in Illinois last year, is still going strong in 2021. The company recently leased a 629,000-square-foot warehouse in Huntley, according to the report. It also purchased warehouse sites in Gage Park and Humboldt Park.

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For the Waukegan property, Amazon is leasing space from Bridge Industrial, which developed the 225-acre industrial park in three phases; the Amazon space is part of the final phase.

Amazon’s push for new warehouses and distribution centers around the city has also contributed to a hiring frenzy. The company added 15,000 employees in the state last year and plans to add another 3,800 in 2021. It’s not clear how many people the new site in Waukegan will employ.

The industrial real estate market in the Chicago area has soared during the pandemic and Amazon has been a big reason. From March through July 2020, the company leased 11 million square feet of warehouses and distribution centers.

[Crain’s] — Holden Walter-Warner