CHICAGO—The Opus Group has just signed a contract with King Shan LLC to build a 44,158-square-foot industrial and office space next to the company's existing 35,000-square-foot facility in Opus' Oakview Corporate Park in northwest suburban West Dundee. And Opus officials say a host of manufacturers in the submarket have begun to think about expansion, making it quite likely the area will soon see even more development.
“King Shan's business has just been growing, and we are starting to see a lot of opportunities with firms looking for stand-alone build-to-suit facilities,” Jim Caesar, regional vice president of Opus Design Build, LLC, tells GlobeSt.com. “The groups we've see include German firms and local companies involved in things like precision manufacturing.”
Unlike the I-55 region, with its giant distribution buildings, the typical industrial facility in the West Dundee area is a small manufacturing plant or warehouse. The Taiwan-based King Shan, for example, makes and distributes wire grill tops for Weber grills.
“There has been a very noticeable increase in activity in the past five months,” Caesar says. “We're talking with three other companies right now,” all for facilities similar to the one the Minneapolis-based Opus will build for King Shan. One of the firms is conducting its due diligence on the site, although “the deal is not inked yet.”
“A lot of the activity is driven by the beauty of the area,” he adds. The park, for example, has scenic views of the surrounding forest preserves and golf courses.
Once Opus finishes the new building for King Shan in January, the business park will have five sites with a total of between 500,000-square-feet and 600,000-square-feet, Caesar says. He believes it can hold four or five more buildings with an eventual total of about 1-million-square-feet.
The new space will allow King Shan to expand both production and distribution. It will feature about 41,000-square-feet of warehouse space with a 24' clear height, as well as 4,000-square-feet of office space. Opus will link the company's two facilities via a graded driveway.
Opus Design Build, LLC is the project's design-builder, and Opus AE Group, LLC is the architect and engineer of record. Noel Liston of Darwin Realty and Development represented King Shan and Opus in this transaction.
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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.
