COLUMBUS—Tenants have begun to fill up industrial buildings throughout the metropolitan area, pushing vacancy rates to historic lows and leaving developers to wonder whether or not it's time to kick off more construction.
Officials from the Opus Group, for example, say that Seattle-based SK Food Group just signed a lease for the remaining 180,000-square-feet of space at Opus Business Center at Rickenbacker 7 in suburban Groveport. The deal includes a number of tenant improvements designed for the group's food manufacturing and wholesale business. Opus has developed seven buildings totaling 3.6-million-square-feet in the business center.
“This transaction is another sign of the improving activity in the Columbus industrial market,” says Douglas J. Swain, vice president and general manager of Opus Development Company, LLC. “We're pleased to partner with SK Food Group and look forward to collaborating to customize this high-tech space to meet the company's growing business needs.”
“The current 7.0% industrial vacancy rate in the Columbus market is at an all-time low,” according to a report by JLL, and “developers are considering the possibility of building warehouses on a speculative basis and tenants are seeing a change in economics and concessions from previous years.”
Planned improvements to the approximately 496,000-square-feet Rickenbacker 7, which features a 36' clear height, column spacing of 48 by 50 feet and an ESFR sprinkler system, include building out 16,000-square-feet of office space, as well as multiple freezers, coolers and additional space to support an assembly area. The modifications to the space will allow 250 employees to work in the facility during each shift.
Jeff Lyons of CBRE represented SK Food Group and Michael Linder from Colliers International was the listing broker.
Founders Properties, LLC owns Rickenbacker 7. Opus Development Company, LLC assisted with the lease agreement. Opus Design Build, LLC is the general contractor and Opus AE Group, LLC provided design services for the building improvements. Opus officials expect to finish construction in June 2014.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
