Bissell Moves Into $20M BTS

ELWOOD, IL-Bissell Homecare Inc. has relocated to a $20-million build-to-suit it had designed within the CenterPoint Intermodal Center East. The Grand Rapids, MI-based home cleaning products company’s new 500,000-square-foot building is a slight expansion from its previous Midwestern headquarter distribution facility it was leasing in Joliet. Bissell’s facility is the first within the 300-acre East addition onto CenterPoint’s existing 1,500-acre CenterPoint Intermodal Center.

“They have an existing facility in Joliet that they’ve outgrown, and they saw the potential in being located in the CenterPoint Intermodal Center,” says Ben Warriner, senior project manager with Woodridge, IL-based Morgan/Harbour, which constructed Bissell’s building. “A lot of it has to do with the fact that the intermodal is right there. This offered a lot more efficiencies with their distribution facility.”

Located on about 36 acres at the intersection of Route 53 and Walter Strawn Road, Bissell’s facility is expandable by another 250,000 square feet and offers 32-foot clear ceilings, 120 cross docks, four drive-in doors and parking for 229 trailers.

“They came in with a pretty well-defined plan of attack. With all of their facilities across the US, they knew what they wanted to have in the facility,” Warriner tells GlobeSt.com. “A lot of it came from their knowledge of how their operation is best suited.”

Only a couple of sites remain in CenterPoint’s original property, spurring the expansion to what was previously farmland to the east of Route 53. Morgan/Harbour also recently completed the $8-million infrastructure on the new property, extending and creating new roads, adding detention ponds, and doing work on water lines. When fully built out, the intermodal center will offer more than eight million square feet of space.