ST. LOUIS—Until recently, speculative industrial development hadvanished from the St. Louis area, but the reviving economy haslifted manufacturers and distributors, sent vacancy rates plunging,and gotten developers interested in taking risks again.PCCP, LLC, a real estate finance and investmentmanagement firm, and St. Louis-based TriStarProperties, for example, just formed a joint venture toacquire 45 acres of land for the speculative development of a673,000-square-foot bulk warehouse building at TriStar'sGateway Commerce Center just east of St.Louis.

As reported in GlobeSt.com, research on industrial activity inthe first quarter showed why speculative projects were feasible.The industrial market recorded 1,795,283-square-feet of positiveabsorption. “That is more than in all of 2013,”Ed Lampitt, vice president and principal ofCassidy Turley in St. Louis, told GlobeSt.com.“And 2013 was an awfully good year.”

“We haven't had that kind of absorption since 2004,” addedAlex Cain, a financial analyst in Cassidy Turley'sSt. Louis office.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Brian J. Rogal

Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.