Type: Industrial, office-warehouse

Size: 71,933 square feet

Ceiling height: 24-foot clear

Developer: Scannell Properties

Details: Indianapolis-based Scannell Properties is seeking city approvals for a new, 71,933-square-foot speculative office-warehouse in the ­Mendota Heights Business Park.

Scannell, which is active in Minnesota with new industrial building projects in Maple Grove, Shakopee and Owatonna, has proposed the new building for the final vacant parcel in the northern portion of the business park, which it acquired from United Properties this year.

United started work on the 210-acre mixed-use commercial, office and industrial business park in the 1960s near the intersections of Interstates 494 and 35E and Hwy. 55. Since then, it has seen the coming of an Associated Bank branch as well as Brown College's Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, a Courtyard by Marriott hotel and other buildings.

Scannell's planned building is a "Type II industrial flex" facility would include approximately 57,600 square feet of warehouse space and 14,400 square feet of office space. The ceiling heights would be 24 feet and the building would feature 160-foot bay depths and a 120-foot-deep truck court.

The proposal comes at a time when low vacancy rates and growing demand are prompting the building of new industrial "spec" projects in the Twin Cities. The city and the developer are still negotiating the final design of the structure after a request for variances affecting parking and a setback were denied earlier this month.

A spring 2014 opening has been targeted.

Don Jacobson is a freelance writer in St. Paul. He can be reached at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com