MINNEAPOLIS—Scannell Properties has justoutlined its short and long term plans for Kinghorn Logistics Hub,including a 220,000-square-foot speculative warehouse distributionfacility that it will break ground on this month. The new 67-acrebusiness park in northwest suburban Rogers could eventually have asmuch as 1.5-million-square-feet, company officials say. TheIndianapolis-based Scannell also named JLL'sChris Hickok, executive vice president, andDan Terry, vice president as exclusive marketingrepresentatives for the spec project and the build-to-suitsites.

The new spec is just one of many now rising in the Twin Cities,one of the economically healthiest regions in the nation.Developers have about 2.5-million-square-feet of industrial specprojects underway, Hickok tells GlobeSt.com, all of it bulkdistribution.

The source of developers' confidence is easy to pinpoint, headds. Although the official vacancy rate in the sector is 9.1%, asignificant number of these buildings are functionally obsolete.Furthermore, the unemployment rate is only 4.1%, the lowest ineight years and the lowest of any metro area in the US. About 7,200jobs were added to the local economy in September, on top of the8,900 added in August. “There are a lot of manufacturing companiesin the Twin Cities that have to distribute their products.”