$1.6B Chicago Area Industrial Business Park in Works

June 28, 2007 By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

A 2,000-acre parcel in suburban Chicago is in line to become the home of a massive 20 million-square-foot master-planned business park, now that Ridge Property Trust and BNSF Railway Co. have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the project. RidgePort Logistics Center-Chicago will cost an estimated $1.6 billion to complete.

The RidgePort site (pictured) is just outside of Wilmington in unincorporated Will County. However, Ridge and BNSF are currently working with local officials to annex the property into the city. The project will encompass 20 million square feet of industrial distribution space, and will be enhanced by commercial and retail space on a neighboring 40-acre parcel to accommodate park tenants and area residents. Perhaps the most vital feature of the project is its prime position off I-55 and along rail lines. "The property is located on BNSF's transcontinental mainline, and that goes directly into Los Angeles and Long Beach; it's double-tracked the whole way, so it's a straight shot," Douglas E. Hayes, Ridge vice president, told CPN. Easy access to the bustling Southern California ports is fundamental, Hayes said, noting that 13.1 million containers were brought through the ports in 2004, and that an estimated 59 million are expected to travel through them annually by the year 2030. "Much of that traffic is coming to the Midwest," he added. "Because of transportation costs, it's much more economical to bring it through Chicago and put it on rail where it could go to two-thirds of the country."


The Chicago area is the leading freight transportation and distribution center in the country, and other developers are answering the call for additional industrial space accommodations. ProLogis announced earlier this month that it will develop a 10 million-square-foot park in Wilmington, and TCB Development Co. broke ground on a 575,000-square-foot spec distribution center in University Park in May. Ridge and BNSF expect to break ground on the first structure at RidgePort, a 1 million-square-foot spec building, by this fall. The entire build-out of the project will take approximately 15 years.

Based in Chicago, Ridge Property Trust is privately-held REIT with ongoing industrial development in the US and Mexico. The company is also a leading provider of commercial real estate development services. BNSF is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and has been providing rail transportation for 150 years.

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