CHICAGO—Growing demand has pushed up occupancy and rental ratesin industrial buildings across the metro area, and the I-55corridor has become one of the most active submarkets. TheOpus Group just became the latest developer totake advantage of this strengthening market by launching theconstruction of two speculative industrial buildings inParagon Business Park, located off Taylor Rd. insuburban Romeoville. Upon completion, the project will add about255,000-square-feet of new class A industrial space to thesubmarket with an additional 7-acre site that could accommodatebuild-to-suits of up to 115,000-square-feet. Opus purchased the22-acre site from First American Properties andwill begin construction this fall.

“Low vacancy rates and the lack of available stand-alone100,000- to 200,000-square-foot buildings reinforce that there isdemand for this type and size of space in this location, especiallyfor users looking to purchase their own facility,” saidMatt Kurucz, real estate manager for OpusDevelopment Company, LLC, in a prepared statement. He wasnot available by press time, but next week GlobeSt.com will provideadditional comment on the project and the prospects for industrialdevelopment in the area. “We're excited to launch this project andmeet the needs of prospective tenants and user-buyers within theI-55 corridor.”

Opus will build two speculative buildings with about133,800-square-feet and 121,200-square-feet, respectively, andcomplete the projects in the summer of 2015. The buildings willhave 30' clear heights and meet the needs of either single- ormulti-tenant occupancy.