The Opus Group has begun construction on a $15 million industrial building in Eden Prairie, its third such project in the metro region in two months, the company said.
The 130,000 square-foot Golden Triangle Corporate Center is a speculative project, meaning tenants have yet to be lined up. It is located in the busy Golden Triangle region of the southwest metro area, bounded by I-494 to the south, Hwy. 169 to the east, and hwys. 212 and 62 to the west.
The one story structure on Valley View Road, just north of the intersection of West 74th Street and Golden Triangle Drive, is expected to be completed by June 2021. It will have 182 parking spaces, electrical-charging stations and a loading dock with 19 doors.
The project, which organizers said could cost $20 million depending on the tenants, is the latest example of industrial buildings that continue to rise across the Twin Cities, even as retail, office leasing and office construction projects slow down amid a COVID-19 pandemic that shut stores and restaurants and sent hordes of Minnesota office staffers home to work. At the same time, factory workers have continued to toil inside bustling "essential" manufacturing plants, and warehouse workers have scrambled to meet an e-commerce-fueled surge in demand.
According to the forecast released Monday by the commercial real estate development association NAIOP, "industrial real estate has outperformed other commercial property types" despite the pandemic due to demand from the e-commerce sector and in some cases municipal demands.
Nationwide, however, the leasing of industrial and other commercial spaces is expected to slow down somewhat between now and the second quarter of next year, NAIOP officials said.
That outlook is not slowing Minnetonka-based Opus Group.
"Golden Triangle Corporate Center will meet the demand for functional and attractive space in the southwest submarket," and will be one of the only buildings nearby with more than 100,000 square feet, 28-foot-high ceilings and glass curtain walls that bring natural light into two sides of the building, Kit Bennett, senior manager of real estate development at Opus, said in a statement.
