The new $25-million project will double the size of the current Opus Northsight office campus at 87th Street and the Loop 101. Opus West's vice president of real estate development Jeff Roberts tells GlobeSt.com that the second phase will provide JDA with expansion space, but is being developed primarily as speculative class A office space to serve the demand in the metropolitan market.

"We track all of the submarkets and the North Scottsdale submarket is pretty tight so we feel comfortable that rental rates are achievable out there and we would have no problem getting it leased up," says Roberts, who anticipates signing on several tenants during construction with full lease-up expected within a year of the building's completion.

"Our feeling," Roberts says, "is that we probably have some very competitive economics compared to other new projects in Scottsdale." Space is expected to rent for $23.50 per sf triple net, according to Adrian Evarkiou, real estate manager with Opus West.

Designed by Opus Architects & Engineers and built by Opus West Construction Corp., the three-story glass office project is expected to be completed in August 2004. The building will sit on five acres adjacent to the existing 10-acre JDA campus.

The project is Opus West's ninth in the city in less than a decade. Its more than one million sf includes the 280,000-sf Gainey Center I and II, 250,000-sf Scottsdale Spectrum I and II, 215,000-sf Scottsdale Gateway I and II and 160,000-sf Discount Tire national headquarters.