DES MOINES, IA—The nation's industrial market may have entered what some call a golden age, especially for developers that work in the top core markets, but smaller, secondary cities are also attracting a fair amount of activity. The Opus Group just unveiled plans for a 200,700-square-foot speculative industrial development in Ankeny, a suburb of Des Moines. This building marks the second phase of the master planned development at its Corporate Woods Industrial Park, a 50-acre site that already boasts a fully-leased 208,000 square foot industrial warehouse and additional space for a third facility of up to 200,000 square feet.

“Opus continues to see strong leasing velocity in the Des Moines market,” Jason Conway, director, real estate development, Opus Development Co., LLC, tells GlobeSt.com. In addition to the many local firms expressing a desire to expand, “we are also seeing a lot of new companies moving into the Des Moines area.”

“When you think about Iowa, you think agriculture,” he adds, and many of these new firms are distributors for machinery and products in that sector, but the central location of Des Moines has attracted a diverse set of companies. “The city is at the crossroads of the nation; I-80 runs through Des Moines and goes coast-to-coast and I-35 runs north and south connecting Canada and Mexico.”