MRO distribution giant Grainger appears poised to dramatically expand its warehouse operations in its native Chicagoland, according to recent reports.
Real estate analytics firm CoStar, citing local government property records, reported late last month that Grainger had purchased a large warehouse located adjacent to its current distribution hub in Minooka, Illinois, for $78 million.
The nearly 850,000-square-foot warehouse had been owned by Prologis and was vacant at the time of the sale. It was previously leased by third-party logistics provider Kenco, and Minooka Village Administrator Dan Duffy told WCSJ-FM that it had formerly been used by Clorox and Ikea.
Grainger told WCSJ that it anticipates spending an additional $33 million to renovate the facility through the end of next year. The company could use the space for bulk storage.
Duffy told the station that the expansion could add “40, 50 jobs” in the village, and that local officials had put together an incentive package to assist the project. Details of the incentives were not disclosed, but Duffy suggested that they would mirror earlier village incentive packages to share the burden of new sales taxes.
Grainger, long the top distributor on ID’s Big 50 list, first opened its 1 million-square-foot Minooka hub in 2013. The company is headquartered about 70 miles away in Lake Forest, Illinois.
