UP Launches Major Ind. Spec Project

MINNEAPOLIS—United Properties has just closed on the land acquisition for its Red Rock Industrial Building, a speculative project in suburban Maple Grove. At 320,000-square-feet, it could be the largest active industrial construction project in the Twin Cities area, surpassing the 300,000-square-foot facility that Duke Realty is building for Ruan Transportation and Scannell Properties’ 315,000-square-foot FedEx Distribution Center. UP will begin construction of its new building, located near the intersection of County Rd. 81 and 89th Ave. North, on Monday and plans to finish by June 2015.

The Minneapolis-based company has launched this speculative project at a very promising time. The industrial vacancy rate for the metro region fell to 9.1% in the second quarter, according to Colliers, a drop of 30 bps since the end of last year. And the vacancy rate is even lower in Maple Grove’s Northwest submarket. In the second quarter the rate there fell to just 8.1%. Furthermore, industrial developers across the region have more than 2-million-square-feet under construction, much of it in the Northwest.