DES MOINES, IA—The Opus Group has just launched another speculative industrial development in Iowa, this time a 182,000 square-foot office and warehouse facility in suburban Grimes called Gateway Industrial Center. The area has seen very little development since the onset of the recession, and the efforts of Opus are bringing truly modern industrial spaces to a region with mostly older product. As reported in GlobeSt.com, for example, earlier this year the Minneapolis-based company began building Corporate Woods Industrial Park, a 208,000 square-foot spec development in suburban Ankeny.

The new project is part of a national push by Opus that has touched primary and secondary markets. “We're looking at markets across the country where the combination of low vacancy rates and high demand present the opportunity to meet a need for additional space,” Dave Menke, president, Opus Development Co., LLC, tells GlobeSt.com.

“In addition to projects in Ankeny and Grimes, we have speculative industrial projects recently completed or underway in various Midwest submarkets,” he adds, including Shakopee and Brooklyn Park, MN; North Aurora and Romeoville, IL; Plainfield, IN; and Columbus and Cincinnati, OH. In the past 15 months, the company has either completed or put in its pipeline 6.8 million square feet of industrial developments.