Opus West Delivering 1M SF of Spec Industrial

The first phase includes two buildings, one 388,000 square feet and the other 736,000 square feet. Both of the new facilities include cross-dock loading areas, 32-foot clear heights, ESFR fire sprinklers and ample truck and trailer parking. Opus is marketing the larger of the two is the largest speculative industrial building available in Northern California. The triple-net asking lease rate is $0.35 per square foot per month. The lead listing broker is Blake Rasmussen, a Stockton-based SVP with CB Richard Ellis.

Despite the market slowdown the Central Valley came of age as an industrial real estate market in 2008, posting its biggest year to date. There have been three or four large-format lease and build-to-suit transactions in the Central Valley so far this year, including the Crate & Barrel and Home Depot build to suits in Tracy--totaling 1.8 million square feet. Rasmussen was not immediately available to provide additional market information.

Don Little, Opus West's SVP for Northern California tells GlobeSt.com that despite the slowdown there remains a strong list of tenants with large requirements looking at the project. He expects to see solid activity and even occupancy in the first half of 2009, and has until early 2010 to stabilize the development and still meet the pro forma timeline. The development is Opus West's only position in the Central Valley and one of few sites in the region capable of supporting a 1 million-square-foot warehouse.

"We're seeing better than market activity because all of the larger inventory is new or is in limited supply, which is helping maintain good pricing pressure as opposed to delivering more of what's already out there," he says. "We're in active talks but like everywhere, deals are just taking longer. As a result, some deals we initially expected to be done by the end of the year may extend into the first quarter."