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Burlington Northern Santa Fe recently gained the second future user of its 621-acre CenterPoint Intermodal Center under construction in Elwood, Ill., on the site of the former Joilet Arsenal.
Oak Brook, Ill.-based CenterPoint Properties, developer of the 2,242-acre Deer Run Industrial Park that contains BNSF's terminal, March 13 signed a long-term land lease with Container-Care International Inc., a container maintenance, repair and storage company.
Container-Care plans to construct a new facility on a 50-acre parcel, consolidating several of its Chicago-area buildings. The facility, expected to open in fall, would provide BNSF container maintenance and storage services, and offer rail users off-site container storage.
Meanwhile, Partners Warehouse Inc., a freight transportation provider that processes rail-to-truck and truck-to-rail bulk cargo shipments, recently began building a 300,000-square-foot facility at CenterPoint Intermodal Center per an October build-to-suit agreement with CenterPoint Properties.
When complete in fall, the facility would have direct access to BNSF's yard — through a double rail spur — and include 14 double-dock doors enabling the simultaneous loading and unloading of 28 box cars.
BNSF plans in summer to open CenterPoint Intermodal Center, which would be the Chicago area's only intermodal yard within an industrial park, annually increasing the city's intermodal transfer capacity about 400,000 lifts.
Railroad officials believe the yard — designed to facilitate truck-to-rail and rail-to-truck transfers — will serve numerous tenants as the industrial park develops over the next 10 years.