Ryan renews tenant at Laraway Crossings Spec One; Arnold Logistics leases 374,400 square-foot building marketed by Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler

Naperville, IL (May 19, 2006) — Arnold Logistics, the first tenant at Laraway Crossing Business Park in Joliet, IL, has completed a lease renewal for 374,400 square feet of space at 251 Laraway Road. The transaction comes approximately six months after Cadbury Schweppes leased 475,000 square feet at Ryan’s second spec building.

According to Ryan, this sustained activity at Laraway, in Joliet and throughout the Will County market area likely will serve as a catalyst for a third speculative building at 352-acre master planned park.

Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler is responsible for marketing Laraway Crossings.

Arnold Logistics , a third party logistics firm, and a division of Arnold Industries, was founded in 1976 to provide distribution services to the world's largest information technology company, IBM. Since then the company has expanded to provide full-service logistics services including warehousing, fulfillment, contract packaging/manufacturing, reverse logistics, and transportation.

“We are thrilled Arnold Logistics has elected to remain an integral part of Laraway Crossings,” said Gunther Lubben , Director of Development, Ryan Companies US, Inc. “The company’s lease at Laraway several years ago helped pave the way for additional activity then, and likely will do so again.”

Lubben acknowledged that Ryan now is finalizing plans on the third and largest spec building for the park. No definitive timetable has been been planned, but an announcement is likely later this Spring.

“Ryan remains very excited about development activity in the Joliet and Will County areas,” Lubben said. “The market continues to warrant further development. As long as market forces dictate, we will continue to develop property that meets the needs of users in this high profile and key transportation and logistics market.”

Laraway Spec One ultimately is expandable to 720,000 square feet. Features of the building include 30-foot clear ceiling height, an ESFR sprinkler system, 40 exterior truck docks, parking for 162 cars and 51 trailers.

Headquartered in Camp Hill, PA, Arnold Logistics operates other facilities in Central Pennsylvania, Dallas TX, Columbus OH and Champaign, IL.

David Bercu, SIOR, and Greg Pacelli, both of Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler, represented Ryan Companies in the lease transaction. Keith Stauber, SIOR, also of Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler, represented Arnold Logistics.

Last fall, Cadbury Schweppes plc, a worldwide leaders in the beverage and confectionary markets, completed a lease for 475,104 square feet of space at the second building in Laraway Crossings Business Park. It was one of the largest industrial transactions in the Chicago metropolitan area in 2005.

Building II at Laraway Crossings (401 E. Laraway Road) totals 475,104 square feet. Included in the Cadbury space is approximately 100,000 square feet of climate controlled warehouse space and 5,500-square feet of office space. Cadbury Schweppes uses the building as a food product warehouse/distribution.

According to the First Quarter Industrial Market Report produced by Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler, the vacancy rate in the I-80 market was 12.1 percent.

David Bercu said, “The numbers moving forward look even better than the first quarter report indicates. Velocity and interest has picked up substantially providing optimism for the balance of 2006. Laraway is in a great position to continue to serve the needs of large big box users.”

Ryan Companies US, Inc. is a leading national commercial real estate firm offering integrated design-build and development as well as asset, property and facilities management services to customers. For more than 68 years, Ryan Companies has used a single-source approach that offers flexibility in defining the scope of a project and strength in providing effective, timely solutions resulting in a higher certainty of success. In addition to its Chicago office, Ryan has offices in Minneapolis, Phoenix, San Diego, Tampa and Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa.