A small industrial park is in the works on Sunnyvale Drive in Wilmington.

Cameron Management, with McKinley Building Corp. as its general contractor, is developing four, 18,000-square-foot metal buildings expected to serve as flex warehouse space at 735 Sunnyvale Drive.

"There's a need for flex space. If you check the [commercial] MLS, there's probably less than 1% vacancies in that type of property," said John Gavin, assistant broker at Cameron Management. "We've heard over the last few years that there's a shortage and a need for this kind of space, especially on this side of town. A lot of this stuff has been built in Leland or kind of the outskirts of the county. There's not a lot of flex buildings like this that are newer being built on the side of Wilmington so that's why we decided to pull the trigger on this project."

Gavin is listing the property along with Cameron Management broker Bryan Greene. The buildings will be similar, Gavin said, to those of North Kerr Industrial Park and Dutch Square in northern New Hanover County. 

"They'd be great for contractors, electricians, plumbers, a cabinet company – anybody who really needs office and some portion of warehouse ... a lot a lot of times you have small businesses or even online businesses who might have just online sales and then they need a warehouse," Gavin said. "It can be a lot of different types of businesses."

Sunnyvale Drive, home to Bradford Products, National Gypsum and more, has seen an increase in industrial development activity in recent years, he said. Across the street from the flex space project, Cameron Management has listed about 9 acres for lease for outdoor storage at 820 Sunnyvale Drive, Gavin said.

"We've got permits to pave light and fence the site depending on what that tenant might need," he said.

The first building in the flex warehouse project, where the buildings feature 22-foot clear heights and 12-by-12 garage doors spaced every 25 feet, is expected to be complete by the end of this year.