Illinois Firm Invests $6M in New Semitrailer Storage Facility

Transport Properties Inc. opened a new 570 spot semitrailer lot in Gary. (photo courtesy: The Times of Northwest Indiana)

An Illinois-based logistics and outdoor storage firm is responding to explosive growth in e-commerce by opening a new $6 million trucking facility in Lake County. Our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana report Transport Properties, headquartered in Chicago, has opened a secured semitrailer parking facility in Gary that can hold nearly 600 trailers.

The company says trucking companies or individual drivers can lease spots month-to-month. The idea is that a logistics company or owner-operator leave their truck or trucks in the monitored, restricted-access lot that’s guarded 24/7.

Transport Properties says drivers can leave their personal vehicles parked there when taking the truck out to run a load.

The 22-acre facility is located near the Indiana Toll Road and Borman Expressway and not far from Interstate 65. The company says the location was key.

“Everything comes right through here,” said Transport Properties Principal Tim McCahill. “You can basically reach the whole country from Chicago and Northwest Indiana…(it) is such a massive thoroughfare for transportation.”

McCahill says the company looks for tracts of land that are less usable for commercial development, such as big-box stores.

It currently operates 26 truck parking facilities in the Midwest and is planning for several more properties.