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Commercial
Chicago

Northwest Side factory turned into $65M after rebuild from destructive fire

Newly Weds Foods transferred site to Charles Angell in 2002

4125 West Wrightwood Avenue (Google Maps, Chicago Fire Department)
4125 West Wrightwood Avenue (Google Maps, Chicago Fire Department)

A $65 million real estate deal has risen from the ashes of a 2019 fire that destroyed a Northwest Side foods products manufacturing plant that’s since been rebuilt.

Charles Angell, former president of Chicago-based Newly Weds Foods, sold property he owned separately from the company back to the firm, though the business has occupied the property for years. The deal was struck months after Newly Weds announced Angell would transition out of day-to-day management of the company.

Charles Angell (Candid Candace)

Newly Weds paid $61.9 million for the industrial facility on the Hermosa neighborhood’s eastern border with Logan Square at 4125 West Wrightwood Avenue and $3.4 million for a property next door at 2541 North Keeler Avenue last month, according to Cook County records. The company didn’t return a request for comment.

The sellers were separate corporations managed by Angell, the company’s former president. Angell stepped down from operations while staying on the company’s board and overseeing its growth plans, trade publications reported in June. Angell’s father, Paul Angell, founded the privately-owned company, which manufactures and sells breaders, which coat food items, as well as batters, seasonings, sauces and other ingredients.

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Back in 2002, Newly Weds Foods owned the property and transferred it to Angell, according to Cook County records.

A fire destroyed the factory in April 2019, according to local news reports. Chicago-based construction and design company Epstein Global announced in July that it had completed a new 300,000 square foot, two-story manufacturing facility in its place.

Owning its own real estate could be advantageous for the company, as compared to renting from a third party had Angell sold it to an industrial property landlord. Industrial rents in the Chicago area continued to climb this year, according to a third-quarter market report from Colliers. Rental rates were up an unprecedented 13 percent year-over-year and are expected to stay on an upward trajectory, according to the report.

In other factory news, battery technology company NanoGraf will open a permanent factory in Chicago’s West Loop. The firm will be a tenant of Fulton Market developer Jeff Shapack, who bought the 1.5-acre warehouse for $6.5 million in 2019. NanoGraf is relocating its manufacturing enterprise to Chicago from Japan. Recently, users of commercial space aside from traditional office occupiers, including those oriented around manufacturing and laboratory research, have boosted the West Loop.

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ChicagoIndustrial MarketNorthwest Side