Opus Starts Another Minn. Spec Project

MINNEAPOLIS—The Opus Group has just completed a deal which should finally get a big chunk of industrial property in southwest suburban Shakopee, MN, back into productive use. They closed the acquisition of a 50-acre site where they plan to break ground on a 200,000-square-foot speculative project and simultaneously spun off about 60 acres of adjacent land and a vacant 509,000-square-foot building to the Emerson Electric Company. That building has never been used. “They’re basically going to go into the building and make improvements and add offices and manufacturing components and occupy it,” says Tony Phelps, the senior director of real estate development for Opus.  And the Opus building will be just the first phase of a new industrial and office park known as the Valley Park Business Center.  

“[Emerson] got a fair deal on the building itself,” Phelps adds. They paid about $7.25 million for the site, while Opus paid about $9.25 million to Premier Banks, a locally-owned banking organization, for their property.