CRE MARKETPLACE (pg.14): CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES/GENERAL CONTRACTORS FINANCE & INVESTMENT FIRMS REAL ESTATE LAW FIRMS
VOL.33 NO.2
THE LEADING NEWS SOURCE FOR INDUSTRIAL REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS & USERS
MARCH/APRIL 2023
What do employees want? Nearby labor critical to market’s continued growth
By Mia Goulart, Senior Staff Writer
P
art of the challenge of a booming industrial market is finding enough labor to build and operate the buildings—both in the front office and in the warehouse. Chicago Industrial Properties recently spoke with CRG Senior Vice President Jeff Lanaghan about the importance of locating new buildings close to a plentiful labor supply and what users can do to better attract and maintain skilled labor.
Location is the name of the game. Unemployment is at an all-time low across the U.S. and in Illinois (3.4% and 4.6%, respectively) due, in large part, to freelance jobs like Uber and Lyft. When it comes to finding employees for the industrial market, being located close to labor makes for greater odds of being selected by job seekers than a building further down the street, simply based on proximity. Location is not just important—it’s essential for filling factories, warehouses and manufacturing plants with the desired employees. LABOR (continued on page 8)
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The data center revolution: Microsoft project in Hoffman Estates just one of many in Illinois
By Mia Goulart, Senior Staff Writer
L
ife without technology is hard to imagine. It's a part of nearly everything we do, yet few people consider the infrastructure behind it, namely, data centers. We’ve all heard of the mysterious “cloud,” but contrary to how we might imagine it, it is not white or fluffy, but rather a physical facility that centralizes an organization’s information technology operations and equipment for the purposes of storing, processing and DATA CENTERS (continued on page 10)