Hines has paid more than $87 million for a logistics campus near Chicago as the firm known for developing trophy high-rises expands its industrial investments in the area and throughout the country.
Houston-based Hines paid $87.73 million for two warehouses in Melrose Park, Illinois, according to Cook County property records. The seller was AEW Capital Management.
AEW acquired the warehouses at 4700-4800 and 5000 Proviso Drive as part of an eight-property portfolio purchase from TA Realty in 2015, according to CoStar data. That deal valued the warehouses at just under $62 million combined.
The two-building, 1.1 million-square-foot complex is fully leased to logistics companies, Hines said in a statement that did not identify the tenants. CoStar data shows that space in the buildings is leased to Winston Brands, Grand Worldwide Logistics, Diversified Entities and CHEP USA.
Hines said it was interested in the property because of its proximity to multiple expressways, an intermodal railway and O’Hare International Airport.
The property “represented a compelling opportunity given its strategic infill location in the densely populated O’Hare submarket, which is supported by a strong labor pool and proximity to major highway and rail arterials,” Will Renner, a senior managing director at Hines, said in the statement.
Boston-based AEW did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoStar News.
Adding Industrial To Mix
The deal continues Hines’ investments in existing warehouses and industrial developments despite a slowdown in sales of all property types nationally because of rising interest rates and other economic factors. Industrial property sales in Chicago have totaled just $2.7 billion in 2023, according to CoStar data, down from $7 billion last year and $8.6 billion in 2021.
Hines' purchase in Melrose Park adds to a list of deals by the company in recent years that have added grittier, low-rise investments to its portfolio, which includes trophy offices and residential towers in Chicago.
Recent Hines deals include completing the 60-story Salesforce Tower along the Chicago River and paying $73 million for an apartment tower on the western edge of the Loop business district. Salesforce Tower was among the few major developments in the country to break ground in the early weeks of COVID-19 in 2020.
Since late 2021, Hines has bought a loft office building on Goose Island, an industrial and office campus along the North Branch of the river and the WGN-TV studio next to that North Side complex.
Hines’ industrial investments outside Chicago include a recently started four-building industrial park in Austin, Texas. The company also recently announced plans to develop a 3 million-square-foot industrial project on 450 acres near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.