After the pandemic fueled an industrial building boom, developers are finding buyers for newly completed projects.
The development arm of Transwestern, known as Transwestern Development Company, last week sold a 255,000-square-foot distribution center in the Chicago suburbs to an Asian food wholesaler for $33.5 million, public records show. The sale price equates to $131 per square foot.
The buyer was JFC International, which is based in Los Angeles, according to the property’s latest deed.
Though total development costs are unclear, Houston-based Transwestern likely did well on the sale. The company bought the land for the property at 4101 Canterfield Parkway East in West Dundee for $2 million in 2022 and took out a $21 million construction loan from Comerica Bank shortly afterward, according to Kane County public records. No other loans have been publicly recorded against the property, which is known as the TDC I-90 Logistics Center.
The property likely benefits from Chicago’s robust rail network as well as its proximity to O’Hare International Airport. The distribution center is about 20 miles from O’Hare and 40 miles from downtown Chicago.
Though fears of oversupply in Chicago’s industrial market were percolating last year, by the halfway point of this year, absorption rates began to tell a different story.
In the second quarter, speculative industrial development overtook built-to-suit projects for the first time since early 2024, according to NAI Hiffman.
At the same time, the region saw an absorption rate of 1 million square feet, indicating leasing activity is still outpacing vacancies, NAI Hiffman found. The region’s vacancy rate has hovered between 5.5 percent and 6.5 percent since 2024.
Pending and recently completed sales indicate supply is still matching demand, even if activity has slowed somewhat since a pandemic-era peak.
On Chicago’s Southwest side, local firm Bridge Industrial is under contract to buy Ford City Mall with a $150 million plan to demolish the 960,000-square-foot shopping center and replace it with a four-building logistics complex spanning 913,000 square feet.
Existing properties have been trading, as well.
Houston-based Hines earlier this year bought a distribution center at 555 Saint James Gate in suburban Bolingbrook for $29.5 million, or about $73 per square foot. Seller TradeLane Properties had purchased the 404,000-square-foot facility in 2021 for $24.6 million.