Bridge Development Partners continues to be one of the most active industrial developers in the Chicago metro area, and it just acquired a significant land parcel in one of the region’s tightest submarkets. Company officials said it acquired 700 North Wood Dale Road, in suburban Wood Dale near O’Hare Airport, and plans to build Bridge Point Wood Dale — two industrial facilities totaling 342K SF.

The O’Hare submarket may be the best place to launch such projects. The vacancy rate around the airport sank to record lows in each quarter of 2018, ending the year at just 2.9%, according to Colliers International. Other developers finished several nearby spec developments in the first few months of the year, pushing the rate back up to 4.9%.

“As has been the case with recent speculative development, this space is expected to lease expeditiously,” a release from Colliers said. Colliers International’s Thomas Rodeno and Matthew Stauber represented the seller.

Four long-vacant, single-story masonry office buildings occupy the Wood Dale site. Bridge plans to begin demolishing these structures within the next 30 days, and then construct by the end of 2019 one speculative industrial building totaling 241K SF, and by March a 100K SF building that Forward Space LLC already agreed to lease.

"We have already found an ideal, Chicago-born tenant in Forward Space, and look forward to welcoming other tenants in search of Class-A modern warehouse space where their business can grow and thrive," Bridge Development Chief Operating Officer Steve Groetsema said.

Bridge bought the 741K SF Fountain Square Commerce Center in suburban Bolingbrook for $73.5M in November, and plans to develop a 216K SF spec building at the site, bringing the total size of the development to approximately 957K SF across 67 acres.

Fountain Square is one of the few industrial developments to include green landscaping and a park, and Bridge Point Wood Dale will have similar features, company officials said. It will have 32-foot clear ceilings and ample exterior loading docks and car parking spaces.

Forward Space, a woman-owned commercial furniture dealership, will consolidate existing facilities in Oak Brook and Lake Forest into a single location at Bridge Point Wood Dale. The company's office will take up about 20K SF, with the rest used as a warehouse.

CBRE’s Todd Lippman, Sam Badger, Whit Heitman and Jared Paff represented Forward Space.