Capp Industries Taps Opus to Build Spec Warehouse in Suburban Minneapolis

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Leith Dumas, Opus

Confidence is building in suburban Minneapolis’ industrial sector and Capp Industries Inc. is making a move to capitalize on the improving conditions. Capp just signed the Opus Group to a contract to design and build a 121,000-square-foot speculative industrial building in Shakopee, Minn.

The new Class A building, a warehouse and distribution facility, will sprout up at 4551 12th Ave., across from a building Capp contracted Opus to build in 1996.

“This project will build on the success of our previous work for Capp Industries and provide a flexible, well-located facility to fill the demand for industrial space in the area,” Leith Dumas, director, Opus Design Build L.L.C., said in a prepared statement.

Indeed, demand is on the upswing in the Minneapolis-St. Paul industrial market. In the Southeast submarket, where Capp’s  new project is being constructed, overall absorption has been positive this year and leasing activity is on the rise, according to a mid-year report by Colliers International.

And Capp’s project, with ample available space and a 32-foot clear height, appears to fit the bill in terms of tenant priorities.

“Buildings that are 18-foot-clear and higher with vacancies over 25,000 square feet are seeing good activity and are leasing faster and at higher rates than they were 18 months ago,” per the Colliers report.

Opus is dividing the work on the Capp development between two of its subsidiaries; Opus Design Build will oversee the design-build responsibilities, while Opus AE Group L.L.C. will serve as the architect and engineer of record. Capp expects the doors of the new facility to open in January 2015.