Lowe’s Leases Former Sears Logistics Site
From the Daily Journal: 2/26/20
MANTENO — The vacant 1.4-million-square-foot warehouse location in Manteno — formerly occupied by Sears Logistics — has been reportedly leased by Lowe’s Home Improvement and will be the company’s newest distribution point.
Tim Nugent, president and CEO of the Economic Alliance of Kankakee County and Manteno’s mayor, confirmed the deal on Tuesday. He said a long-term lease — either 10 or 20 years — was signed late last week.
The property at 1600 Boudreau Road, Manteno, had been the original site for Sears Logistics in Manteno, being built in 1990.
Information regarding the number of jobs the company will bring is not known.
Owned by KIN Properties, of Boca Raton, Fla., the complex had most recently been the home for Innovel Solutions. Innovel relocated into the nearby Kmart Distribution business in Manteno.
The deal between KIN and Lowe’s was brokered by Colliers International of Chicago. Because of a confidentiality agreement, the company could not discuss the deal when contacted late Tuesday afternoon.
Nugent said he had been told from numerous sources the new occupant is Lowe’s.
Constructed in 1990 with just more than 1 million square feet, the complex was expanded in 1996 and 1998 by a total of 375,000 square feet. In addition, the property has 263 loading docks.
Lowe’s, of course, is one of the nation’s leading home improvement retail stores. It has a large store at 860 N. Kinzie Ave., Bradley, near the Meijer store.
“It’s like I’ve said in the past, when one door closes, another opens,” Nugent said regarding the Lowe’s deal. “It was a tragic day for our region when Sears closed the warehouse. But that proved to be an opportunity for another company.”
The nearest Lowe’s warehouse is in Rockford. The company is headquartered in Mooresville, N.C.
Lowe’s, founded in 1946, is a Fortune 50 company and the world’s second largest home improvement retailer. As of February 2019, it operated 2,220 home improvement and hardware stores — 1,723 of which are in the U.S.