The parcel is among the few remaining large land tracts on the west side of the Lehigh Valley industrial market near the interchange of Route 100 and I-78 where much development is taking place. Bombay Co., for example, just took 410,000 sf of a new 607,000-sf Crossings II building on Nestle Way, developed by Opus East.

Jones Lang LaSalle is marketing the property for 3M. Chad Galayda, VP in the Chicago office, and David Nenner, VP in New York, head the sales team. Benjamin Bader, SVP in the Philadelphia office, is handling the local-area marketing and sales campaign. The asking price is undisclosed.

According to Bader, more than three million sf of industrial space has been completed or broken ground in this market since the beginning of 2004. "Based on demand for distribution space in the market, we expect this sale offering to draw interest from many potential buyers," he says.

A second-quarter report from the Philadelphia office of CB Richard Ellis puts the vacancy rate in the Lehigh Valley industrial market at 13.4% and confirms that absorption here is accelerating. Michael Bartolacci, VP of Bethlehem-based Garibaldi Group, also reports that absorption in the overall Lehigh Valley industrial market began to rebound in 2002 and forecasts an acceleration of absorption into 2005.