Realty Income just dropped $124 million on a single warehouse in south suburban University Park, a blockbuster trade that industrial insiders say is the Chicago area’s biggest one-building industrial sale in more than five years. The 910,800-square-foot bulk-distribution facility at 23301 S. Central Ave sits in the Gateway 57 business park along Interstate 57 and is fully leased to Central Steel & Wire. In a market where overall deal volume has cooled, institutional buyers are still lining up for long-term, net-lease industrial assets like this one.
According to CoStar, the sale was recorded in Will County property records last week. Realty Income bought the property from a venture tied to San Antonio-based Affinius Capital and local developer Venture One Real Estate. CoStar pegs the building at roughly 910,800 square feet and notes that it is fully leased to Central Steel & Wire, a unit of Ryerson Holding Corp.
Venture One Real Estate describes the site as Gateway 57, a near-million-square-foot build-to-suit developed for Ryerson/Central Steel & Wire. The Will County Center for Economic Development highlighted the project at the groundbreaking and said the facility is expected to employ at least 300 people. Both organizations list the property at 23301 S. Central Ave in University Park.
Why This Sale Stands Out
CoStar data shows the University Park purchase is the largest single-property industrial sale in the Chicago region since the 2021 trade of a Michelin distribution center in Wilmington, which CoStar recorded at roughly $126.5 million. Over the last year, CoStar reports that total industrial sales in the Chicago metro reached about $4.3 billion, roughly a 10 percent decline as higher borrowing costs and tighter underwriting have slowed investment.
Realty Income’s Playbook
For Realty Income, the deal fits squarely into a strategy that targets large, mission-critical logistics properties that can churn out long, stable cash flows. In January, the company announced a programmatic joint venture with Singapore’s GIC and development partner Hines that will commit more than $1.5 billion to build-to-suit logistics investments, a private-capital effort that the firm says will expand its pipeline of acquisitions. Realty Income outlines the joint venture structure and states that it plans to acquire completed, pre-leased properties from that platform.
What Comes Next For University Park
Local officials are casting the sale as a big win for the south suburban industrial corridor, which has been drawing fresh development from tenants chasing rail and highway access. The Will County Center for Economic Development has said the project will generate construction jobs now and at least 300 permanent positions once Central Steel & Wire fully ramps up operations. Brokers say the transaction could signal that institutional buyers still have a healthy appetite for well-located, long-leased megasites, even as overall sales slow. For University Park, the open question is whether Realty Income will sit on the property as a long-term income play or eventually package it for investors who are hungry for stabilized industrial cash flow.
