Opus West to Build 675,000-SF Industrial Project in Salt Lake City

PHOENIX-Opus West has closed on a 33-acre parcel in Salt Lake City and plans to build a 675,000-sf speculative industrial project, the company’s first in the Utah capital.

The Phoenix-based developer purchased a 33-acre parcel in the Sorenson Technology Park in Salt Lake City for $3 million. Opus West plans to build a 275,000-sf warehouse/distribution building in the first phase of the project.

“This will be our first spec industrial development in the Salt Lake City area, and we believe the timing is right for a new project,” says David O’Donnell, senior real estate director for Opus West. “The demand for new distribution and warehouse space has been very steady over the past three to four years. We think that demand will remain strong into the foreseeable future.”

Construction is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter, with completion expected by mid-year 2001. At build-out, the project will have 675,000 sf of warehouse and distribution space.

Opus West has been Phoenix’s most active developer during the past decade, building hundreds of thousands of sf of office and industrial space throughout the metro area. But in an interview earlier this year with GlobeSt.com, Opus West president Tom Roberts said that the increasing competition in Arizona made the opportunities less attractive than in the past.

While Opus West plans to continue to develop in the Phoenix area, the company has become increasingly interested in development possibilities in the California and Salt Lake City markets, Roberts said.

The Salt Lake City office of NAI Utah Commercial represented Opus in the land purchase.