St. Louis developer to build $45M industrial spec project near airport
By Brian Pedersen, February 2, 2018 – Architectural rendering shows what The Cubes at Lehigh Valley-Airport Road in East Allen Township will look like upon completion.
A 40-acre property on Airport Road in East Allen Township is the site for a St. Louis-based developer’s plan to build a 450,000-square-foot-industrial building, a project that could cost $45 million or more.
CRG, headquartered in St. Louis, will build The Cubes at Lehigh Valley-Airport Road, which the company said would be in a position to capture the growth for large warehouse distribution and e-commerce fulfillment centers.
The Lehigh Valley corridor and central Pennsylvania are consistent with the company’s growth, based on customer demand, said Scott Caplan, vice president of the eastern region for CRG. The area of centralization is about 60 miles from the Port of Newark in New Jersey, he added.
“It’s become attractive to national retailers and logistics companies,” Caplan said.
Construction will start in early spring and finish in the fourth quarter, he said.
The speculative building could be home to a manufacturer or logistics company, Caplan said.
He envisions more industrial properties for the company to develop and will announce new projects in central Pennsylvania, he said.
“It’s hard to find sites that are entitled and ready to go with the kind of population that services this market,” said Chris McKee, president of CRG. “We’re actively looking for sites in the region.”
The close proximity to the Lehigh Valley International Airport and the FedEx Ground hub under construction are two more benefits to the project, they said.
Caplan said his company would make significant road improvements on Airport Road and Nor-Bath Boulevard, where the property sits at the intersection. Improvements include traffic lights and road widening, he said.
CRG is a division of Clayco, the design-builder on the project, while Clayco’s subsidiary, Forum Studio, is the architect.
Depending on tenant improvement costs, total construction costs could be $45 million to $50 million, the company said.
Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania in Mechanicsburg is marketing and leasing the property.
CRG’s Clayco has completed nearly $2 billion in design-build activity, McKee said.
The company’s other projects include The Cubes at DuPont Center, a 1.6 million-square-foot business park in DuPont, Wash., The Cubes at Etna Park in Columbus, Ohio, and The Cubes Inland 85 in Spartanburg County, S.C