EQT Exeter pumps $72M into Chicagoland industrial

Bob Chapman’s Oak Brook-based CenterPoint Properties found a big private equity buyer to help it cash out of a Chicagoland industrial complex, as a record number of warehouse developments are hitting the market.

EQT Exeter, the real estate arm of Swedish private equity firm EQT, paid CenterPoint $72 million for four warehouses totaling 740,000 square feet in the northern suburb of Gurnee, across Interstate 94 from the Six Flags Great America amusement park, according to public records. The price comes to about $92 per square foot.

The properties are at 705 and 1001 Tri State Parkway, and 5605 and 5750 CenterPoint Court.

The transaction extends EQT’s shopping spree for Midwest warehousing to more than $670 million. It paid $225 million in September to Atlanta-based IDI Logistics for a seven-property portfolio: four buildings in Joliet, along with assets in Mississippi and Kentucky.

The Gurnee deal looks to be EQT’s play to control more logistics space along Interstate 94.

Further north, EQT in 2022 purchased an eight property portfolio for $380 million. Most of those assets are in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, and one is in North Chicago.

CenterPoint declined to comment, and EQT didn’t return a request for comment.

More industrial space was delivered to the Chicago-area market than ever before in the third quarter of last year. As supply coming online starts to outpace demand, vacancy rates have started to rise. The pandemic-era’s historically tight market brought record high occupancy rates, with vacancy below 4 percent and even lower during some stretches.

CenterPoint as of late has made a habit of selling its Chicago-area assets to the likes of big players such as Blackstone. The suburban Chicago firm bought up warehousing in southern California in 2022, before interest rate hikes pushed dealmakers to the sidelines last year.

Blackstone bought a four-property portfolio near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for $137 million from CenterPoint in October, and in 2021, Blackstone purchased a $151 million industrial portfolio from the same seller.

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