What Opus East has in mind are two 86,000-sf class A mid-rise office buildings, with a groundbreaking slated for the second quarter of this year. The project will be the fifth in the region in the last three years for the Plymouth Meeting, PA-based division of Opus Corp.

"Right now, South Jersey is considered to be the best area for growth throughout the metro Philadelphia marketplace," says Craig Guers, Opus East's vice president and general manager. "This property is in a great location in an excellent market."

And contrary to some of the high office vacancy numbers emanating from the northern and central portions of the Garden State, "we are looking at a tight South Jersey market with total vacancy at 6.58% and class A vacancy at 3.5%," according to Sklencar. "So we fully believe that the timing and location is right for this project.

"The first building will start in April and will be ready for occupancy by the fourth quarter of 2003," Sklencar continues. "It will be the best and newest building in the market."

Besides the latest planned office complex, Opus East has also set its sights on buying enough land, over the next several months, to ultimately develop more than four million sf of retail, warehouse and office space in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to Guers. The company's three-year-old game plan for the region has already been converted into some two million sf of space.