MINNEAPOLIS—The financial crash derailed a lot of developments planned for the Twin Cities, but with the partial economic revival, some have gotten back on track. United Properties, for example, will begin developing InverPoint in suburban Inver Grove Heights by constructing a 130,000-square-foot speculative industrial building. United Properties first got approval for InverPoint in 2007 just before everything fell apart.

“We had started doing site work out there but obviously when the recession hit, it ended,” says Brandon Champeau, assistant vice president at United Properties. “We basically mothballed the site for a few years. Since then, there hasn't been a lot of building in the industrial market.” However, business activity has been “accelerating over the last two to three years; there are also not a lot of blocks of space left, especially those with more than 50,000-square-feet.”

The market's vacancy rate climbed as high as 23%, Champeau adds, up from around 10% before the recession got started. The rate recently fell back to its pre-recession level. “That's what got us excited.”