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BETHLEHEM, PA-Opus East LLC has broken ground for Bethlehem Crossings III, a 224,000-sf spec warehouse/distribution or light manufacturing facility on 17 acres. This joins two other buildings to take Bethlehem Crossings Industrial Park to an aggregate of 459,600 sf.

Craig Guers, senior vice president and general manager of the Plymouth Meeting-based office of the Opus Group, estimates the construction cost for this project at $55 per sf, which would take it to just north of $12.3 million. "That's a 30% increase in costs over the past 18 months," he tells GlobeSt.com. "The good news is, costs of drywall, oil-related products and scrap steel are now leveling."

Bethlehem Crossings III is expected to reach completion in May 2007, and Guers says, "the rent rate will be in the vicinity of $5 per sf, depending on tenant improvements." The facility will have a 28-foot clear ceiling height, up to 40 truck loading positions, two drive-in bays and build-to-suit office space. "Although we're building it on spec," he says, "we have three proposals out to full-building users."