Albert Lea Economic Development Agency staff and area business leaders on Wednesday celebrated the completion of the new ALEDA speculative building on the corner of Margaretha Avenue and 14th Street in Albert Lea.

ALEDA Executive Director Dan Dorman said he hopes the 62,500-square-foot building will be able to be used as a tool to create jobs through the development of new businesses or the expansion of current ones.

Speculative buildings — officials usually call them spec buildings — are those owned by the Albert Lea Port Authority to be leased out to interested companies. In Albert Lea and other cities, they provide a space for companies to come into a community and test it out for a while, before making the decision to buy or build.

Many buildings in Albert Lea’s industrial parks began as spec buildings, either owned by the Port Authority or other organizations, and have provided room for many businesses.

Dorman said Albert Lea’s first spec building was constructed in the early 1980s.

This new spec building, on the corner of the ALEDA Industrial Park — the revised name of what had been called the South Margaretha Industrial Park — was constructed after the Albert Lea Port Authority board recognized the need for additional industrial or commercial space in the area, he said. ALEDA worked with Zenk, Read Trystad & Associates to come up with a design for the building and a plan of where it would go.

Last winter, they let bids out for the project, anticipating it would cost $2.1 million. Bids came in lower than expected, however, at $1.8 million.

Construction began in May, and ALEDA leaders did a walk-through of the completed building about three weeks ago.

Dorman said he hopes to see somewhere between 50 to 100 people employed in the building when it is fully utilized, but that could vary higher or lower depending on what type of business goes in there.

It could even be easily divided into two parts in the case of two tenants.

He said there are currently four loading docks for the building, with the potential of having eight.

The building has 24-foot-tall ceilings, compared to the 18-foot-tall ceilings in ALEDA’s other spec buildings.

This spec building is also probably one of the more attractive spec buildings the agency has done, Dorman said, with windows in the front corner and landscape planned for spring.

He noted the building has access to sewer and water, heavy electricity, fiber optics and other amenities that could attract potential businesses.

Depending on what happens with this building — whether it gets leased or sold — will determine whether the agency moves forward with additional spec buildings in the future.

Dorman said it is ALEDA’s hope to continue to replicate this process.

The ALEDA Industrial Park is west across Margaretha Avenue from the original Jobs Industrial Park, the first community-owned industrial park in the United States.

Business leaders initiated the new building Wednesday with a ribbon cutting and a recognition from Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors.