CHICAGO—Many of the speculative industrial projects currently under construction throughout the metropolitan area are on a modest scale, usually less than 200,000-square-feet. But the USAA Real Estate Company has just acquired 32 acres of land in suburban North Aurora, and has contracted Opus Development Company, LLC, to develop, design and construct a 604,565-square-foot speculative industrial building. San Antonio-based USAA will own the building.

“The I-88 market is very tight,” says Mike Yungerman, vice president of real estate development at Opus. “There are very limited opportunities for large blocks of space and we're excited to be able to fill the void along this corridor with a flexible project that can appeal to a wide range of tenants.”

The new speculative building will have immediate access to I-88 via a four-way interchange at Orchard Road, and company officials say they expect to draw a highly-skilled workforce from both DuPage and Kane counties.

“With the design and expandability of this building, we will successfully meet the pent-up demand for larger users who currently have limited options to start up new operations or expand existing ones in the I-88 corridor,” says David Reahl, executive director with USAA.

Building features will include a 32' clear height, 60 docks, 103 trailer parking spaces, ESFR sprinkler system, T5 lighting, office space to suit future tenant requirements and future expansion capabilities to 1-million-square-feet. The partners plan to begin construction in early October, and complete the project in June 2014.

Opus also purchased an adjacent 25-acre parcel that could provide build-to-suit opportunities or building expansion. Brendan Kelly of Avison Young represented Opus in the land transaction.