I-40 Advantage Auto Park

On August 14, Paine/Wetzel ˇ ONCOR International announced two separate transactions that involved their representation of fellow IAMC member organizations. Ed Barnett, CCIM, principal of the firm, represented Novartis in the lease of 12,602 sq. ft. in the Chatham Centre in Schaumburg, near I-90 and O'Hare International Airport, as the company had outgrown its offices in Barrington. And Gerald F. Sullivan, principal, and Theresa Gleason, CCIM, vice president, represented fellow Chicago firm First Industrial Realty Trust in their acquisition of a 115,000 sq.-ft. industrial building located at 1500 Chase Avenue in Elk Grove Village into their FirstCal 1 joint venture. First Industrial plans to demolish the building and construct two buildings (77,500 sq. ft. and 49,880 sq. ft.) with 25 docks and trailer storage on site. "We are very excited to have the opportunity to redevelop this property and look forward to doing more redevelopment in the O'Hare area," said Mike Powers, development manager of First Industrial. Speaking of Novartis, an in-depth interview of Klaus M. Leisingerm, president of the 27-year-old Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development was recently conducted by Gautam Kumra of the McKinsey Quarterly.

The groundbreaking for the a new manufacturing facility in Tianjin, China, by IAMC member firm Kennametal was documented in the July 2006 issue of Site Selection. In early August the 160,000-sq.-ft. (sq.-m.), $31-million facility officially opened, less than a year after that ceremony. Now employing 200, the operation could grow to 450,000 sq. ft. and employment could reach 400 people. Kennametal has invested approximately $35 million in its China businesses in other locations.

Making a bit of its own relocation news, IAMC member NAI Global announced July 31 that it had acquired the assets of its network affiliate in New York City, NAI DG Hart, marking the company's first such acquisition since its founding in 1978. As part of the transaction, NAI Global will relocate its corporate Global Solutions group, led by managing director Jean Claude Goldenstein, from Princeton, N.J., to Manhattan. NAI Global's Capital Markets group, led by managing director Peter Avalone, also will claim New York City as its base of operation. Also part of the transaction was the appointment of Jeffrey Finn, president and COO of NAI Global, as chairman and CEO of NAI New York City. Separately, Mr. Finn noted that the company is actively seeking additional executive leadership and brokerage talent as well as to pursue select acquisitions. "Our clients are driving our expansion," Finn said. "Our plans are to double the number of professionals we have in New York over the next 18 months."

IAMC member firm Equis Corp. in late June was acquired by Australian firm United Group Ltd. for $120 million. Existing senior management will continue to run Equis.

When covering IAMC member firm ProLogis, only bullet points will do. Among the Colorado industrial developer's latest news:

• The $238-million acquisition of more than 3.5 million sq. ft. at five industrial parks in Mexico City and one in Guadalajara. ProLogis' industrial platform in Mexico now totals approximately 11.7 million sq. ft. owned, managed and under development, concentrated around the markets of Mexico City, Guadalajara, Tijuana, Juarez, Reynosa and Monterrey.
• The lease of nearly 1 million sq. ft. (91,400 sq. m.) in Canada and The Netherlands to DHL and Exel, subsidiaries of the Deutsche Post World Net group. Exel will establish a new distribution center at ProLogis Park Mississauga Gateway Centre, a 100-acre industrial park being developed in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga. The park, located near Toronto's Pearson International Airport, can accommodate up to 1.8 million square feet (167,300 square meters) at full build-out. DHL's facility is at Vossenberg-West industrial park in Tilburg, which offers easy access to the Rotterdam port complex and to Amsterdam, Antwerp and markets throughout western Europe. DHL will use the building to serve customer Seiko Epson, a leading manufacturer of computers, peripherals and other electronics products.
• The purchase of four bulk distribution centers totaling 1.5 million sq. ft. in Atlanta, and the separate purchase of 115 acres of land in that city's northeast submarket along I-85.
• Two big Asian projects came onto Prologis' dashboard in early June. One is a new, 661,000-sq.-ft. (61,400-sq.-m.) industrial facility adjacent to Tokyo's Narita International Airport, the company's third distribution center in the Narita submarket. The REIT is also in charge of developing the 1-million-sq.-ft., $43-million logistics and distribution hub for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, located at the Beijing Airport.

Elsewhere on the logistics scene, Otis Elevator Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of IAMC member firm United Technologies Corp., has moved into a regional distribution center developed by TNT Logistics North America in Orlando, Fla. The 57,700-sq.-ft. center is the company's fifth in the U.S. Among the services TNT will offer is consolidation of components into complete installation kits for each project, which are then delivered to job sites.

GROWING AGAIN: Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht, BASF's Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, and Mr. Chen Tonghai, President of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) and Chairman of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp.), at the signing ceremony on July 10, 2006, in Berlin for the expansion of the Nanjing site. Photo: BASF - The Chemical Company, 2006

Eastern Europe is an active region for IAMC member companies. Unisys Corp. plans to open a 250- to 300-station call center in Hungary by this fall. Avon announced on the same day in late May that it would open a new office and storage complex in Schastlivoye, Ukraine, as well as a distribution center in Romania that will serve markets in that country, Bulgaria, Moldova, Macedonia and Albania. And Budapest Bank, the Hungarian unit of GE Money Bank, has opened a new operations center in Bekescsaba, Hungary. "When selecting the locations for the bank operations centre it was a significant criterion for GE Money to contribute to the development of the region, just like when we have recently established a similar service center in Ostrava in the Czech Republic," said Dmitri Stockton, president and CEO of GE Consumer Finance responsible for Central and Eastern Europe.

IAMC member Patrick Topping, senior vice president of the Macon Economic Development Commission (MEDC), has been appointed to the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Public Policy Advisory Committee. The Committee makes recommendations to the External Member Relations Committee about the organization's legislative affairs and federal relations. MEDC received some good news earlier this week when Freudenberg Texbond LP, located in Macon for 20 years, announced it would invest $10 million in a new 50,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility for nonwoven polyester products used in the roofing industry. The company is already planning two other phases of the investment, both valued at more than $10 million.

In late May, North Carolina-based Captive-Aire Systems, the nation's largest manufacturer of commercial kitchen ventilation equipment, opened its new 46,000-sq.-ft. production plant in Redding, Calif. Captive-Aire President Robert Luddy pronounced himself pleased with "the excellent reception" from the City of Redding and from IAMC member Jim Zauher his team at the Economic Development Corp. of Shasta County. In a turnabout from the trend, according to the Raleigh News and Observer, Captive-Aire chose California over Nevada, owing in part to a Nevada law that would have required the firm to pay Nevada-exempt taxes in North Carolina. Redding also has recently finalized environmental impact reports for the fully entitled, 700-acre Stillwater Business park, where sites range from three acres to 95 acres.

A new business park is also at hand next week for another IAMC member organization, Zimmer Real Estate Services of Kansas City. The Congress Business Park, in an enterprise zone in the city's northland region, will offer sites from 1.5 acres to 25 acres.

California-based International Rectifier is expanding operations at this Newport, Wales facility.

In late June IAMC member company International Rectifier announced it would expand its semiconductor plant in Newport, Wales, adding 200 new jobs to a payroll of 550.

Joe Moravec