Large north Wichita warehouse project expected to wrap up in November

A group of local investors is building a 108,000-square-foot warehouse that is expected to be completed within a few weeks.

The concrete tilt-up building at 3144 N. Ohio, near 29th and Ohio, is expected to be completed next month, Bradley Tidemann of J.P. Weigand & Sons said Monday. Tidemann is the leasing agent for the speculative north-side warehouse developed by Pawnee Industrial II, which he said is a group of private investors.

The $3.5 million warehouse with a 30-foot-high ceiling sits on 13 acres. Tidemann said the warehouse can be expanded another 50,000 square feet.

He said a future phase could include construction of a second warehouse totaling 100,000 square feet.

Crossland Construction is the general contractor.

Tidemann hopes the warehouse’s proximity to Interstate 135’s 29th Street ramp will increase the appeal of the building.

He said the developers are doing the project now because tax breaks the Wichita City Council approved in 2012 for speculative industrial buildings will sunset at the end of 2014.

And, “there’s still a void – and demand for good, quality, high-bay industrial space in Wichita,” Tidemann said.

Tim Goodpasture, economic development analyst for the city of Wichita, said the Ohio street warehouse qualifies for the incentive. The incentive provides for industrial revenue bonds with a 100 percent property tax exemption for five years to be issued for speculative industrial buildings.

Tidemann said developers are working on a potential deal right now for 58,000 square feet of the warehouse.

David Bossemeyer, vice president of business development at the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition, said there are few warehouses of that size and with that ceiling height in the area.

“We still get a lot of calls for large industrial building with high clearance under beam,” Bossemeyer said. “We don’t have a lot of them.”

He said that doesn’t necessarily mean a building of that size will lease quickly.

“Is there a market for a building like that? Absolutely,” Bossemeyer said. “But it does take patient capital.”

On the flip said, he said when site selectors call looking for modern warehouses with high ceilings, they don’t want to wait for one to be built.

“Everything’s moving much, much more quickly now,” Bossemeyer said. “They don’t want to to wait 120, 180 days for a building to go up.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2014 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Large north Wichita warehouse project expected to wrap up in November."