Tri-State Realty - Business Parks- Lake County, Illinois

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We invite you to visit these business parks in Lake County, Illinois where you can see
a detailed map of the available space as well as the benefits they have to offer.

Lake County Build-to-Suit Market Overview
Unlike the speculative building and existing building markets, the build-to-suit market is driven by a company with facility requirements deriving from a variety of market and business conditions as well as economic factors. Market conditions affecting the decision to build are the lack of availability in the existing building market, (including speculative construction, the cost of land building materials, and the competitive building packages offered by the design-build industry). Business conditions, such as unique business operations which require specific building attributes, consolidation, expansion or relocation of business operations, are also considered when a company determines to build a new facility. Economic factors, such as the finance markets, proximity to labor force, suppliers, vendors, transportation and economic incentives offered by a municipality or county, can further prompt a company to seek a new building project. As a direct result of these conditions and factors, the Lake County, Illinois build-to-suit market over the past ten years has prospered and will continue to prosper.

The evolution of modern day business park developments in Lake County, such as Lincolnshire Corporate Center, Corporate Grove, Corporate Woods, Continental Business Park, Amhurst Lake, Delany Business Center and Grand Tri-State Business Park, from the mid to late 1980’s fueled build-to-suit activity in that these business parks offered relatively inexpensive land (zoned for business use with utilities) and lower real estate taxes than neighboring Cook County. Build-to-suit activity continued into the 1990’s with new building projects primarily in the 35,000 to 150,000 square foot range whereby the majority of these buildings are company owned. The most active industries driving the build-to-suit market in Lake County are medical, technical - computer and communications, plastics, consumer products, R&D, as well as various service and distribution companies. Now in 1999, the land inventory in Lake County for ready-to-build sites has greatly diminished which has resulted in higher land prices and allowed developers to control remaining land parcels to capture their share of the lucrative build-to-suit market.

Due to the lack of available sites and the recent increase in the available building market (spec construction and rollover space), the build-to-suit activity in the county will slow to some degree; however several proposed business park developments are planned within the south, west and north sections of Lake County. These new developments which will be in the 30 to 50 acre size (much smaller than their predecessors) will give companies with build-to-suit projects a few more choices. Most likely the developers of these projects will offer competitive land prices to attract companies in order to promote initial land sales. Thus the build-to-suit market in Lake County, Illinois, from this real estate professional’s vantage point, will remain healthy for the balance of this decade.