Caledonia-based Jon Hendersen Real Estate Inc. plans to build a 37,200-square-foot speculative industrial building in a 36-acre business park that it is developing southwest of I-94 and 6 ½ Mile Road in the Town of Raymond in Racine County.
About 7,000 square feet of space in the building will be occupied by ClearCom Inc., which will move there from Racine. The remaining 30,000 square feet of space in the building, which will be built on a 3-acre lot, is available for lease. Construction of the building is expected to begin this summer, said Jon Hendersen.
In addition, construction is expected to begin in spring for a 30,000-square-foot building on a 3.5-acre lot in the business park for Southport Heating, Plumbing & Geothermal, which will consolidate its Kenosha and Racine County operations there.
Also, a 40,000-square-foot building for Hitters Baseball Academy is under construction on a 3-acre lot in the business park. Hitters will move to the facility from Caledonia.
The business park could attract some retailers because of the site’s proximity to I-94, but most of the tenants will likely be industrial space users, Hendersen said.
The project, called Raymond Business Park, is another sign that development activity remains hot in the I-94 corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago, and is on the rise in Racine County.
Last week the Racine County Economic Development Corp. announced that Rosemont, Ill.-based Land and Lakes Development Company plans to develop a 60-acre industrial park southeast of Highway 20 and International Drive in Mt. Pleasant. Land and Lakes plans to break ground this spring on a 132,000-square-foot speculative industrial building there.
The industrial real estate market is tight in Racine County, which has an industrial space vacancy rate of 4.5 percent, according to Xceligent. By comparison, southeastern Wisconsin has a 6.1 percent industrial space vacancy rate.
“Racine County is ideally situated between Chicago and Milwaukee, and with a business friendly environment for building development, it was an easy decision to invest here,” said Hendersen.
“RCEDC has identified the shortage of business park land and buildings as a priority to be addressed in 2014,” said Gordy Kacala, executive director of the RCEDC.
