Amazon plans to acquire the huge Central Steel & Wire factory on the southwest side of the city, and agreed to pay about $45 million to increase the e-commerce giant’s vast warehouse network in Chicago.
According to people familiar with the matter, Ryerson Holdings Corp. owns 70 acres of land near Gage Park and has signed a contract to sell it to Amazon and lease it back for about two years.
The transaction has not been completed and may break. If the sales can be completed as expected, then Amazon will eventually redevelop the location at 51 W. 51st. As part of the company’s evolving storage and distribution space network.
Colliers International broker Mike Senner, who is not involved in the transaction, said the location is about 3 miles from the Stevenson Highway, which prefers highway access to many warehouse users.
Senner said, however, there is enough land to develop warehouses with an area of ​​1.5 million square feet or more, and enough parking space is left. That will be Amazon’s largest building in Chicago to date.
Senner said: “In Chicago, there is nothing on the market that can approach 70 or more acres.” “The balance eliminates any concerns about the proximity of the highway.”
Central Steel & Wire opened a factory 80 years ago. It is not clear whether the operation of the steel plant will be relocated or closed after the leaseback agreement ends.
Central Steel & Wire, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chicago-based Ryerson, was acquired in 2018 for more than US$150 million.
According to the Central Steel Company’s website, the Central Steel Company was founded in Chicago in 1909 with only seven employees. The 51st Street factory was built in 1941.
She said in an email on Tuesday that Seattle-based Amazon has invested more than $8 billion in Illinois and created more than 36,000 full-time and part-time jobs.
Amazon has leased most of its industrial space in the Chicago area, including the three-warehouse complex that opened last year on the site of the Maywood Park Racecourse in Melrose Park west of Chicago.
Amazon also expressed its willingness to purchase and retain land that it can develop in the future, including the 119-acre old Chicago amusement park and the Bolingbrook shopping center.
Amazon bought the site for $50.5 million in early 2020, but soon after it was hit back by the village about its plans to re-develop the site. The company did not comment on Bolingbrook’s plan.