Amazon nears deal for empty Chicago vertical warehouse at Goose Island

Amazon is nearing a deal to buy the vacant vertical warehouse at 1237 W. Division St., just west of Goose Island, from developer Logistics Property Company, according to The Real Deal, which credits Crain’s Chicago Business with the originating report. No price has been disclosed, nothing has closed, and the building has never had a tenant since it was completed in 2024.

Why it matters

Multistory logistics has a thin record in the United States, and this is the clearest test case yet of why. In-city vertical warehouses cost far more per sq ft than a single-story box on cheap suburban land, and they only work for a user with enough order density to justify the premium. Logistics Property Company built this one speculatively, finished it in 2024, put it on the market in October 2025, and never leased a square foot of it.

The exit tells developers and brokers more than the building does. The developer is not leasing to a tenant, it is selling to one. If the realistic buyer pool for a speculative urban multistory facility is effectively a single national operator, then the asset class is not a market, it is a bespoke build. For anyone underwriting the next one, that argues for a signed user before a shovel rather than a bet on lease-up. It is the same lesson visible in Chicago’s larger office repositioning trades, including the Google deal at the Thompson Center: the credit tenant, not the speculative sponsor, sets the price.

The numbers

The site covers 11.5 acres that Logistics Property Company acquired for $55M. The building runs roughly 1.2M sq ft in total, of which 571,000 sq ft is warehouse space, with parking decks configured for 1,590 cars or 763 vans. Our review of the developer’s own project page reconciles that warehouse figure: 253,000 sq ft each on Levels 1 and 2 plus about 66,000 sq ft of mezzanine. The building carries 36-foot clear heights on the ground level and LEED Gold certification.

Against a $55M land basis, Logistics Property Company took out a $150M construction loan. Amazon is expected to cover the outstanding balance on that loan, and Crain’s reported the price will land at a fraction of what the building cost to build. Amazon has projected 600 to 800 permanent jobs.

What’s next

Watch for a recorded deed in Cook County, which would convert this from a reported negotiation into a comp. Until then there is no price, no closing and no primary record. Our own search of county filings turned up no recorded transfer. For more Chicago activity, see our Chicago market coverage.