RJW Logistics is locking in one of the suburbs’ biggest industrial moves, signing a lease for a roughly 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse at Karis Park West in Montgomery. The new distribution building is planned on land next to existing industrial parcels in the Karis Park West complex, a deal that highlights just how aggressively big-box logistics players are pushing into Kendall County and the Fox Valley suburbs.
According to Crain's Chicago Business, RJW leased the roughly 1.2 million-square-foot facility at Karis Park West, with the building to be developed on adjacent land. Brokers actively market the site; JLL lists Karis Park West as a build-to-suit parcel offering 500,000 to 1.2 million square feet on about 98 acres along Galena Road.
RJW’s broader Chicago-area push
The Montgomery deal slots into a bigger Midwest buildout for the Chicago-area third-party logistics provider. In a company news release, RJW said it has added more than 2.3 million square feet across Illinois, including a 1.1 million-square-foot Joliet hub and a 1.2 million-square-foot Plainfield facility. RJW Logistics Group frames the new space as a strategic boost to its retail consolidation network.
On the landlord side, the numbers do not always line up perfectly with corporate tallies. Trammell Crow, which developed the Plainfield Business Center, described the Building 1 lease there as roughly 788,000 square feet and announced a similarly sized Phase 2 building coming in 2026. Trammell Crow illustrates how developers sometimes report building sizes and phase counts differently than operators aggregate them across portfolios.
Where the Montgomery project came from
The Karis Park West site traces back to plans filed by Karis Acquisitions for a larger Karis Center for Commerce. Local reporting and village records from 2023 show the project was approved as a roughly 204-acre industrial and commercial development, with an initial 500,000-square-foot, rail-served building for Ravago and later phases that envisioned a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution facility. Shaw Local reviewed the municipal filings as the plan moved through village approvals.
Local impacts and infrastructure questions
Village planning documents and the municipal budget show officials have been baking large industrial parcels into capital and tax-increment financing planning, with roads such as a Galena Road extension and a proposed Karis Way connection surfacing early in traffic-access discussions. The Village of Montgomery’s public financial and planning files note infrastructure and TIF considerations tied to major new industrial development in the Orchard Road area. Village of Montgomery records outline the fiscal and infrastructure context that comes with projects of this scale.
Why big logistics deals keep landing here
Developers and tenants are still chasing capacity in markets where modern, ground-up distribution space is scarce. Colliers’ Q4 2025 market report shows Chicago’s industrial vacancy holding in the mid-4 percent range at year-end, a level that keeps demand elevated for large, well-located build-to-suit facilities. Colliers and other market trackers say those tight fundamentals, paired with the need for up-to-date specs, continue to push major occupiers into the region’s outer suburbs.
What happens next in Montgomery will hinge on permitting, site infrastructure, and how Karis sequences its phases; broker listings currently show the Karis Park West site with an availability horizon in early 2027. LoopNet lists Karis Park West with build-to-suit brochures and a January 1, 2027, availability note for full build-out.
“These expansions reflect our ability to actualize a long-term growth strategy built around our customers’ needs,” RJW CEO Kevin Williamson said in the company’s announcement, emphasizing the operator’s pitch that larger footprints sharpen its retail consolidation and distribution performance. RJW Logistics Group provided the company’s perspective on the broader push.
