OLATHE, KS-Kessinger/Hunter & Co., based in nearby Kansas City, MO, is working to build up to three million square feet of distribution facilities at the new I-35 Logistics Park here at 155^th and Old 56 Highway. The company has announced it is starting construction with on an 821,256-square-foot facility that will be marketed completely as spec space.

Dan Jensen, principal of the company, tells GlobeSt.com that there’s such demand in the area that filling three buildings in the park shouldn’t be difficult. “There is just no product in the marketplace,” he said. “There’s 7% vacancy of all industrial in the area, but when you start to look at state-of-the-art buildings at 100,000 square feet or more, market-wide there’s about 1% vacancy.”

Kessinger/Hunter already has had success in Olathe. The company built a 600,000-square-foot spec warehouse here in 2008, and it is now fully occupied by FedEx SmartPost and Bushnell. Jensen credits the location of region as the country’s central rail hub for being below the national industrial vacancy average. The state sees the most rail tonnage of all 50, and this park is seven miles from the new 1,000-acre Intermodal Center in Edgerton, KS.