Construction is beginning this week on the region’s largest speculative industrial project in about six years.
VanTrust Real Estate LLC General Manager Andy Weeks tells me the company will start on the 717,717-square-foot project on Rohr Road in Groveport after the late March purchase of 61 acres from the Columbus Regional Airport Authority for nearly $4.6 million.
The project near Rickenbacker International Airport joins the 653,195-square-foot Creekside IX speculative industrial building Columbus developer Pizzuti Cos. started in April nearby in Groveport.
“This is the biggest speculative industrial building (in Columbus)
since the downturn,” Weeks told me.
Agents Rick Trott and Kevin McGrath of CBRE Group Inc. brokerage’s Columbus office will market the property.
Public records show Chicago-based Pepper Construction Co. will build the Rohr Road project on 38.5 acres. The project will get delivered in December.
VanTrust declined to release the cost of the construction.
RED Architecture and Planning in Grandview Heights designed the project.
Weeks noted the vacancy for modern bulk industrial has fallen from 17.8 percent in 2008 to 4.3 percent in late 2013.
“I think market activity has picked up,” he said. “All Midwest markets have noticed an uptick in the last 60 days.”
Suburban Kansas City-based VanTrust has speculative projects under construction in Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky.
The Columbus office expects to finish a 500,000-sqaure-foot spec in Louisville later this month while the 275,000-square-foot spec in Cincinnati will get done in July.