Tenants announced for new industrial building north of downtown Grand Rapids

Tenants announced for new industrial building north of downtown Grand Rapids

GRAND RAPIDS — Two local firms plan to expand into a new industrial facility in Grand Rapids later this summer.

All Phase Electric Supply Co., a Wyoming-based electrical distribution company, and Walker-based automation manufacturer Axis Company LLC have signed leases to take a total of more than 70,000 square feet at a new industrial development located at 1810 Turner Ave. NW on Grand Rapids’ west side, according to a statement.

All-Phase signed a lease for 50,000 square feet while Axis Company plans to take 20,150 square feet in the building, which is owned and being developed by Grand Rapids-based Visser Development Inc.

Lease rates for the facility, built on the site of a former junkyard, were not disclosed. However, a recent report from the Grand Rapids office of commercial brokerage Colliers International Inc. — which represented the tenants in the deal — put average industrial lease rates in the region at $4.55 per square foot.

“There were some environmental questions to answer, which have been addressed and cleaned up for use, but the potential of the site was too good to pass up,” Greg Bol, a sales associate at Visser Development, said in a statement. “We planned to break ground on the building whether we had a tenant in hand or not. The fact we had All-Phase committed before a shovel hit the dirt, and it is fully leased before even being finished, is a testament to the demand in the market for quality space. The building was not even being publicly marketed prior to All-Phase signing their lease,”

Visser Development also plans to build a second 135,000-square-foot speculative building on the site, according to the statement.

The development comes amid a tight market for new industrial space in West Michigan, where the vacancy rate is just over 5 percent, according to a Colliers report.

“All-Phase had been touring the market for over a year, so when the Turner Avenue site became an option, all parties involved were confident the location would be a strategic fit to accommodate their incredible growth for many years to come, and also enable All-Phase to offer their customers best-in-class service,” stated Tim Van Noord, an associate broker at Colliers International.