EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Construction is underway on one of the St. Louis region's largest speculative warehouses, a building that could expand due to growing demand in the industrial market.
Global real estate firm EQT Exeter is developing a warehouse with 800,000 square feet of space in the Gateway Commerce Center in Edwardsville, with construction scheduled to finish by fall. The only larger speculative warehouse being built in the region is a 1 million-square-foot warehouse from NorthPoint Development, also located in the Metro East industrial park.
The new spec warehouse, at 5710 Inner Park Drive, is the second in a pair of warehouses commissioned by EQT Exeter and built by Edwardsville-based Contegra Construction. The first warehouse, at 5715 Inner Park Drive in Gateway Commerce Center, measured 674,000 square feet and is now fully leased.
EQT Exeter Regional Investment Officer Ben Haas said the company is hoping to lease the entire new warehouse to one tenant, but it also could be divided into smaller blocks of space or expanded to 1 million square feet if a user had the need.
“There’s just a kind of insatiable appetite amongst tenants for this type of space, and a flight to quality to try to get into the most modern buildings with the most modern features and clearance heights, and all that is beneficial to a warehouse user,” Haas said.
The new warehouse is EQT Exeter’s seventh in Gateway Commerce Center, adding to the company's local real estate after acquiring the entire Duke Realty St. Louis industrial portfolio last year. The other six buildings are fully leased and total 3.25 million square feet, Haas said.
The latest building completed and the new warehouse under construction were part of one of the largest industrial portfolio sales in U.S. history last November, a $6.8 billion deal with more than 70.5 million square feet assembled from more than 100 transactions over three years. EQT Exeter sold the portfolio on behalf of its EQT Exeter Industrial Value Fund IV to an undisclosed, newly formed global partnership.
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