Liberty Property Trust believes in Rogers, Minn. That became evident when the company in late May announced that it would soon break ground on a 227,000-square-foot multi-tenant speculative industrial building in the city located about 24 miles from Minneapolis.
The new spec building will rise in the Liberty Industrial Park at Diamond Lake, and will sit on 13 acres on a section of land that Liberty Property Trust purchased in 2011.
Dave Jellison, senior vice president and city manager for Liberty in the Minnesota region, said that he doesn’t think Liberty is taking that big of a risk by putting up such a large spec building even when the national economy is so shaky.
“Absorption has been good in many parts of the Twin Cities region,” Jellison said. “We also think that the economy is picking up. That combined with the fact that there are not that many larger, newer spaces available for industrial tenants makes this the right time to take on this project.”
Liberty is scheduled to begin construction on the speculative building this month. Plans call the building to be completed by the end of this year. Liberty is investing nearly $14 million in the building, which is being designed to meet LEED certification.
The industrial building will have boast distinct entrances, 32-foot clear height, 54-foot-by-40-foot column spacing and 60-foot deep column-free speed bays. The warehouse will include 27 dock doors, two drive-in doors and clearstory windows that will allow natural light into the space.
In other words, this will be a Class-A facility.
“I don’t have a crystal ball. But when I look at this facility, I see a space that I think will be in demand in this market,” Jellison said. “It’s a good time to step out and build it. We’ll see if we were right or wrong over the next year.”
The architect for the project is Edward Farr of Edward Farr Architects, Inc., and the general contractor is Anderson K.M Builders.
Liberty has been planning the industrial building since it purchased its 55 acres in Rogers in 2011. At this time, the company began designing the master-planned Liberty Industrial Park at Diamond Lake.
Plans now call for three industrial buildings at this park. In the summer of 2011, Liberty sold about 21 acres to Medline Industries, a provider of medical and nursing supplies. The new warehouse building that Medline builds on the site will be the first of the three industrial buildings.
Building 2 is the new spec building that Liberty will break ground on this month. Liberty also has plans for a sister building of similar size, which it will develop in the coming years, to complete the development at the site.
