Bridge Development Partners Named 2018 Developer of the Year by Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards

Bridge Development Partners, LLC has been recognized as the Developer of the Year by the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s 31st Annual Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards. The developer was honored for the quality and regional impact of three of its especially noteworthy projects in the Chicago industrial market: Bridge Point 290 Phase I, Bridge Point Franklin Park Building I, and Bridge Point North Business Park Building III.

“We’re extremely proud to be recognized by our peers for our development activity last year, especially given the number of impactful projects led by skilled developers that are currently underway in the Chicago market,” said Steve Groetsema, Partner and COO, Bridge Development Partners. “Each of our developments will bring thousands of employees back to Chicagoland and will spur meaningful economic development for the region. We’re thrilled to have played a major role in the revitalization of these massive sites.”

Bridge Point 290 Phase I is part of a larger development that comprises of three buildings totaling 899,278 square feet in Cicero, Illinois. It was previously a GE manufacturing plant and a rail car undercarriage manufacturing plant that had long been vacant and was considered an ‘eye sore’ by the municipality and residents. Building I was delivered in April 2018 and brought 250 jobs and $600,000 in annual tax revenue to Cicero. Buildings II and III are both projected to be completed in June 2019. In total, the project is expected to grow annual tax revenue for Cicero by four to five times, and it will employ thousands.

Bridge Point Franklin Park Building I is also part of a larger development, comprised of three state-of-the-art buildings that encompass more than 740,000 square feet. The site was previously occupied by an 80-year-old petroleum tank farm, prompting Bridge to begin a remediation process that brought the site up to IEPA’s highest degree of modern institutional standards for safe workplaces. It was delivered to market in August 2018, and is expected to bring approximately 700 jobs and triple tax revenue for the Village of Franklin Park.

Bridge Point North Business Park Phase II is located in Waukegan—totaling 926,947 square feet, including the 544,429-square-foot Building III. After its acquisition, Bridge successfully transitioned the site from private to public utility through a complex entitlement process. This helped to create new jobs and generate revenue for the City of Waukegan, to which the site did not previously belong.

In 2018, Bridge Development Partners acquired, broke ground on and/or delivered 23 industrial facilities in the Chicago market, totaling more than 5.3 million square feet and representing a total value exceeding $658 million

Bridge Point 290 Phase I also received the NAIOP Chicago Chapter Award for Excellence, as the Industrial Speculative Development of the Year in 2018.

The awards were presented at the Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards Dinner on March 14 at the Hilton Chicago. Each year, the awards dinner gathers more than 1,850 of Chicago’s premier architects, brokers, developers, property managers, interior contractors and design professionals to celebrate the outstanding achievements, as well as to support the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Last year’s awards dinner raised more than $1.45 million, providing more than 4.35 million meals for people all over the city.