HANOVER, MD-Liberty Property Trust  plans to break ground this spring on two new Class A industrial buildings on a 17-acre site here--on a speculative basis. The buildings, which will be constructed in tandem, will bring online some 243,500 square feet of new space by the end of the year.

The two buildings will be located at 7460 and 7462 New Ridge Rd., and will be 117,500 and 126,000 square feet, respectively. They will be LEED core & shell concrete tilt-up buildings with 28' clear ceiling heights, 50' wide column spacing, rear dock high and drive-in loading, and parking.

Matthew Laraway and Benjamin Meisels of Cushman and Wakefield will serve as the leasing agents for Hanover Crossing.

Liberty is making a spec investment at a ripe time in the market's cycle. As Delta Associates notes in its Trendlines report, the Washington/Baltimore flex/industrial market experienced solid performance in 2012 after a lackluster 2011. The reasons include a push for the cloud by companies that drove demand for data centers and the resurgence of retailers, who needed more industrial and warehousing space as support. Flex/industrial net absorption totaled 4.3 million square feet in 2012, compared to 1.4 million in 2011. The region's 15-year average per year has been 4.2 million square feet.

Perhaps more significantly -- the amount of construction in the market was 1.2 million square feet at yearend 2012, down from 1.9 million square feet a year ago. Also, space under construction was 29% preleased at December 2012, compared with 19% a year ago.