Wood Dale greenlights major industrial park redevelopment

At its March 21 meeting, the Wood Dale City Council voted to approve the redevelopment plan for the vacant Oakwood Commerce Center, located at the southwest corner of Wood Dale Road and Mittel Drive, that will construct two modern corporate office and warehouse facilities upon the nearly 22-acre property.

The approved plans call for demolishing the existing three single-story office buildings that were built in 1987 to make room for new construction divided onto two lots.

The first will contain a 242,000 square-foot building and the second will include a 100,000 square-foot building both with parking and truck access.

Together, these high-end, state-of-the-art office and light industrial facilities will bring new jobs, allow growing companies to relocate within the city, provide added sales tax revenue and increase the real estate tax base for Wood Dale.

"This is the single largest redevelopment Wood Dale has seen in recent years," said Director of Community Development Ed Cage. "This is a very exciting opportunity to invest in the community, bring in jobs and provide added tax revenue for the City."

Forward Space, a Chicago-based workplace furniture distributor plans to occupy the smaller of the two buildings, consolidating its three existing locations to relocate to Wood Dale and house its corporate headquarters, showroom and warehouse space. The company will bring an estimated 100 jobs to the community, with plans to expand in the future. Forward Space specializes in developing business workspaces in relation to employee productivity, creativity, collaboration and well-being.

The prospective tenant of the other lot is a current Wood Dale logistics business that would potentially consolidate its operations and relocate its headquarters to the new facility. The final building would be built-out and tailored to the tenant's needs.

"This is an ideal location for any major business at the entrance to our community," said Cage. "The property is located directly off the recently completed Illinois Route 390 with easy access to O'Hare, the western suburbs and is one of the best sites in Northeast DuPage County."

Construction on both buildings is planned to begin soon with anticipated occupancy planned for summer 2020.

The project also will serve to connect a walking and biking path to the Salt Creek Greenway Trail, a 25-mile long regional pedestrian/bicycle trail that extends from Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village southeast to Brookfield Zoo.

To learn more, visit www.wooddale.com.