OLATHE, KS-Kessinger/Hunter & Co., based innearby Kansas City, MO, is working to build up to three millionsquare feet of distribution facilities at the new I-35 LogisticsPark here at 155^th and Old 56 Highway. The company hasannounced it is starting construction with on an821,256-square-foot facility that will be marketed completely asspec space.

Dan Jensen, principal of the company, tellsGlobeSt.com that there’s such demand in the area that filling threebuildings in the park shouldn’t be difficult. “There is just noproduct in the marketplace,” he said. “There’s 7% vacancy of allindustrial in the area, but when you start to look atstate-of-the-art buildings at 100,000 square feet or more,market-wide there’s about 1% vacancy.”

Kessinger/Hunter already has had success in Olathe. The companybuilt a 600,000-square-foot spec warehouse here in 2008, and it isnow fully occupied by FedEx SmartPost and Bushnell. Jensen creditsthe location of region as the country’s central rail hub for beingbelow the national industrial vacancy average. The state sees themost rail tonnage of all 50, and this park is seven miles from thenew 1,000-acre Intermodal Center in Edgerton,KS.