Logistics provider C H Robinson announced that it will expand its business operations in Chicago by signing a seven-year lease for a 235,000-square-foot commercial office building and warehouse at 333 Howard Avenue in Des Plaines IL. Approximately 150 employees will be based at the new facility, which will open in early 2016.
This deal comes on the heels of the company’s announcement that it will build a three-story, 207,000-sq-ft office building in Lincoln Park that will house more than 1,000 employees. C H Robinson will celebrate its 100th anniversary of operations in the city in 2016. The company has roughly doubled its Chicago-based headcount since 2005, and its nearly 2,000 Chicago employees account for almost 15% of its global workforce.
The new facility will serve as a major hub for both North American and international freight consolidation operations. Through C H Robinson’s freight consolidation services, companies that book less-than-full loads of freight on trucks, ships, and airplanes have their shipments packaged with other loads to create efficiencies in the supply chain.
C H Robinson’s Global Forwarding division helps ship commercial freight internationally via its network of transportation providers. The division has more than 3,200 employees in 100 company offices in more than 30 nations. Domestically, the company’s North American Surface Transportation division provides full-truckload, less-than-truckload, temperature-controlled, flatbed, and intermodal freight transportation services and logistics solutions to companies of all sizes.
The Des Plaines facility will also serve as C H Robinson’s in-house TSA Certified Cargo Screening facility (CCSF). This new facility will include 36,726 square feet of warehouse space equipped with state-of-the-art screening technology. The TSA approved C H Robinson as a CCSF in April 2012. Since then, the firm has provided a dedicated air freight screening team that ensures expeditious service to shippers. In addition, the facility is tied directly to Navisphere, the company’s global technology platform, allowing customers to track freight before, during, and after the screening process.
For more information, see www.chrobinson.com.
