Developers pitch speculative building in Carol Stream
A nearly 25-acre site in Carol Stream could be redeveloped into a warehousing building without a tenant lined up, an uncommon speculative project that highlights the demand for industrial space, village planners say.
Dermody Properties, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, has purchased the site and plans to demolish an existing, 230,241-square-foot building formerly occupied by Affordable Office Interiors, which moved out a few months ago.
In its place, Dermody would construct a 381,600-square-foot building that could be subdivided into multiple spaces or house a single tenant.
“It probably won't be incredibly difficult to get one user for that whole building,” says Tom Farace, the village's planning and economic development manager.
A recent report by Colliers International, a Seattle-based company that tracks real estate trends, backs him up. At the end of March, the industrial vacancy rate in Northeast DuPage County stood at 6.3 percent, down from about 8 percent in early spring 2015, Colliers found.
Further, available space in that area peaked at 9.7 million square feet in 2011. Since, that tally has fallen sharply to about 4.7 million square feet of vacant space after the first three months of the year, according to the report.
In Carol Stream, the village's plan commission has unanimously approved architectural and landscaping plans for Dermody's proposed building. Under village regulations for certain properties along North Avenue, plan commissioners can give the final OK for those designs, rather than Carol Stream trustees.
The village board, though, was scheduled Monday night to approve a separate measure that would allow developers to consolidate two lots into one at 365 E. North Ave., where the new building would sit on the central portion of the site. Then, the next step for Dermody is applying for building permits.
About 5 percent of the building, or 19,080 square feet, would contain office space. The rest would be set aside for warehousing.
Developers could potentially break ground on the project later this year, Farace said, adding that he expects a prospective tenant could be announced “sooner rather than later.”