Private Equity Firm Blackstone Spends $150 Million In Waukegan, Zion

WAUKEGAN, IL — A private equity firm spent nearly $150 million to buy office building and warehouses in Waukegan and Zion last month.

It is the year's largest industrial real estate transaction so far, according to Crain's Chicago Business, which first reported the deal.

Link Logistics Real Estate, a New York-based company founded in 2019 by private equity firm Blackstone, bought a portfolio of dozen properties from New Jersey-based PGIM Real Estate, according to Crain's.

The properties recently purchased together include the 234,000-square-foot warehouse on 13 acres at the Amhurst Lakes Business Park on Waukegan Road in Waukegan, as well as an industrial building at 451 Trumpet Park Drive in Zion.

In the first quarter of 2022, Link spent about $600 million on 18 buildings totaling 5.6 million square feet. It also sold 7.6 million square feet of assets totaling about $1.1 billion, company representatives announced last week.

“During the quarter, we continued to acquire and develop high-quality facilities in infill, last-mile locations," Nicholas Pell, Link's president and chief investment officer, said in a statement. "We remain focused on building a sustainable portfolio with state-of-the-art, LEED-certified facilities and leveraging data-driven solutions to identify locations to help our customers grow their businesses.”