New industrial development slated for Canal Winchester

A new warehouse project is headed to Canal Winchester.

NorthPoint Development Inc. is breaking ground on a pair of speculative warehouses on 110 acres along Bixby Road at Rager Road, near U.S. Route 33. The Kansas City developer has been behind a series of warehouse and industrial projects in the Rickenbacker International Airport area in recent years.

The two warehouses will be 430,000 square feet apiece, with 36-foot-clear ceiling heights. At 520-by-840 feet, they will be divisible as needed for smaller tenants, or leased out wholesale. Dayton-based Miller-Valentine Group is the general contractor on the buildings, and Studio North Architecture is the designer.

“We have a great relationship with NorthPoint Development, which has been very active in the Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus regions,” Dave Dickerson, president of Midwest business development for Miller-Valentine, said in a statement. “And we are excited to make our presence known in the Columbus area. This project will cement our regional reputation as a trusted guide with the capabilities to manage projects of a significant scale.”

NorthPoint had intended to break ground on the project in March but paused temporarily because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The buildings will be constructed using pre-cast materials and be completed in June 2021. It’s Miller-Valentine’s sixth contract with NorthPoint.

Rick Trott of CBRE has been named broker for the project, which has been dubbed NorthPoint Logistics Park. The city sold $950,000 in bonds to purchase the property and then sell it to the developer for $15,000 per acre. It’s currently farmland.

Columbus’ industrial market hit pause because of the pandemic, but experts don’t expect to hold their breath long. The region’s vacancy rate ticked up to 6.6% in the second quarter of the year because of new construction deliveries and a brief drop in demand, according to a report from NAI Ohio Equities. But it still counts 8.4 million square feet of industrial construction in the market.

“We expect the Columbus Industrial market to thrive as soon as the current pandemic settles down,” Curt Berlin, NAI industrial specialist, said in the report. “Consumers have continued to increase their amount of online shopping and Central Ohio is one of the top distribution hubs in the nation.”

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