CRG Breaks Ground on The Cubes at Country Club Hills and Expands Midwest Industrial Portfolio into Chicago
CHICAGO – CRG, the real estate development and investment arm of Chicago-based Clayco, broke ground last week on The Cubes at Country Club Hills, a 1,033,450-square-foot speculative industrial facility located at the intersection of I-57 and I-80 in Country Club Hills, Illinois. The 70-acre project, which includes 1,000 feet of interstate frontage, will deliver in the second quarter of 2022.
The facility is the first CRG industrial development in the Chicago area and the first under the firm’s new fund, U.S. Logistics Fund II (USLF II), which launched this year with the goal of developing state-of-the-art e-commerce and logistics facilities across key U.S. logistics markets.
“Chicago is a top industrial market nationally, and it’s also our home, so this is a special project for all of us,” said Jeff Lanaghan, senior vice president and Midwest Region industrial leader for CRG. “The Cubes at Country Club Hills is developed, designed, built and financed through our vertically integrated platform with Clayco. It’s a model for all we’re capable of here at CRG and we’re excited to partner with the city of Country Club Hills to deliver this project.”
USLF II blends institutional capital with investments from high-net worth individuals, family offices, wealth management advisers and other accredited investors to expand access to projects like The Cubes at Country Club Hills. The fund is targeting $1.5 billion in new facilities over the next three years with a target of 10% investment from diverse investors, meaning women and people of color.
This initiative builds upon Clayco’s industry-leading diversity and inclusion program, Clayco Rising. The program prioritizes diverse vendor and workforce participation on projects like The Cubes at Country Club Hills, which is striving to achieve a 26% minority-business enterprise and 6% women’s-business enterprise inclusion while hiring a workforce representative of the local community.
“We’re already leaders in inclusion and diverse workforce initiatives on our projects, so it’s time for that to extend to how our projects are funded,” said Shawn Clark, president at CRG. “The Cubes at Country Club Hills is a model for us going forward, to expand access across the entire lifecycle of our projects so that underrepresented groups can truly participate at every stage. This is a step toward greater inclusion for our industry and, we hope, greater equity as well.”
The Cubes at Country Club Hills closed on June 20. The facility was designed by CRG’s integrated partner and architecture firm Lamar Johnson Collaborative and Clayco will lead construction. Cushman & Wakefield’s (C&W) Chicago industrial brokerage team of Larry Goldwasser, Colin Green and Ryan Klink will market the property.
According to C&W research, the Chicago industrial market just saw its largest mid-year new leasing total on record with more than 26.2 million square feet — a 13.8% increase year-over-year — leased through the first half of 2021. Rents have jumped 7% year-over-year to $5.32 per square foot.
“The Cubes at Country Club Hills has some of the best visibility in the market, and we expect considerable interest in this location,” said Goldwasser, an executive director for C&W. “The team at CRG has extensive experience developing best-in-class, next generation industrial facilities, and that’s what tenants can expect from this project. This is exactly the type of facility major users need to keep pace with today’s supply chain needs.”
Located at the intersection of I-57 and 183rd Street, the project has immediate access to both I-57 and I-80 and is just 26.8 miles from downtown Chicago, 40 miles from O’Hare International Airport and 17.2 miles from Midway International Airport.
As part of The Cubes, CRG’s national industrial brand, the facility will be developed for tomorrow’s logistics user, with an emphasis on sustainability and state-of-the-art specifications, including 40-foot clear heights, cross-dock configuration, 239 trailer parking stalls, 128 exterior docks (expandable to 235) and 212 car parking spaces (expandable to 382).
The firm has broken ground on approximately 18 million square feet of The Cubes projects across the country, more than 10 million square feet of which has already been delivered. Last month, CRG announced its pursuit of the largest speculative industrial facility in Minnesota with The Cubes at French Lake. Additionally in the Midwest, the firm has completed multiple projects near Columbus, Ohio, including The Cubes at Rickenbacker, a 320,000-square-foot warehouse which leased to a food-and-beverage provider in the first quarter of 2021 and The Cubes at Etna Industrial Park, which is anchored by a 1.2 million square foot Kohl’s distribution facility.
“We have the most vertically integrated investment, development, design and construction platform in the country,” said Clark. “That puts us in a great position to identify sites like this and quickly deliver the facilities that match the needs of our national industrial and e-commerce clients. We’ve never seen a market like this, so we’re going to continue to be aggressive in looking for opportunities across the Midwest and nationally.
About CRG
CRG is a privately held real estate development firm that has developed more than 9,000 acres of land and delivered over 200 million square feet of commercial, industrial, institutional and multifamily assets exceeding $12 billion in value. CRG leverages a powerful North American platform with local market expertise and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Southern California, St. Louis and Philadelphia. CRG’s philosophy of developing for the future and anticipating the enhanced needs of next generation users led to the creation of its industrial brand, The Cubes, and its multifamily brand, Chapter. For more information, visit CRG’s website at www.realcrg.com.
About The Cubes
The Cubes is a North American industrial brand owned and developed by CRG. The Cubes represents CRG’s philosophy of developing for the future and anticipating the enhanced needs of tomorrow’s modern industrial user. The Cubes are designed with an emphasis on sustainability, and implement state-of-the-art specifications, including maximum clear heights, dock doors and trailer storage to keep pace with the shift to consumer-centric logistic strategies. The Cubes are located on strategic sites that take into consideration both logistics and labor supply, always with the end user in mind.
About Clayco
Clayco is a full-service, turnkey real estate development, master planning, architecture, engineering, and construction firm that safely delivers clients across North America the highest quality solutions on time, on budget, and above and beyond expectations. With $3.8 billion in revenue for 2020, Clayco specializes in the “art and science of building,” providing fast track, efficient solutions for industrial, commercial, institutional and residential related building projects. For more information visit www.claycorp.com.