The nonprofit group that manages the East Hills Business Park is exploring plans to build a new speculative industrial building to increase the park’s chances of landing new businesses.

Bill Sepic, president of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, confirmed Tuesday that Douglas County Development Inc. is studying its options for constructing a building that would be ready and waiting for new manufacturers.

“It is still very much in the idea stage, so I don’t want to build anyone’s hopes up, but this is exactly the type of thing we should be considering,” Sepic said.

“We should be looking proactively at these type of development issues.”

The building, which would be located on a still-to-be-determined vacant lot in the business park east of Lawrence, would be built “on speculation,” meaning construction would begin before a tenant was found.

It would be the first time DCDI has constructed an industrial building on speculation in more than a decade.

Sepic said current market forces may make a speculative building necessary again.

“We have plenty of office space in this town right now, but manufacturing space is at a bit of a premium currently,” Sepic said.

The lack of available, pre-built manufacturing space can create obstacles to landing new companies, Sepic said, because the trend in the manufacturing industry is to cut down on the time it takes to develop new facilities.

“With these companies anymore, they want to act the moment they make a decision,” Sepic said. “If you can eliminate for a business a few months from the development process, that can really help your chances of landing that company.”

Sepic said the group has not yet developed any cost estimates for the building, nor discussed ways of financing the effort. The last time DCDI constructed a building on speculation was in the late 1980s. The building currently houses Progress Vanguard, a railroad service company, but Sepic said the building has helped attract several other businesses to town.

Sepic said ProSoCo Inc. began looking at Lawrence for its new corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility, in part because the DCDI-owned building was vacant at the time. The building didn’t ultimately end up meeting its needs, but the company ended up choosing the East Hills Business Park for a new facility anyway.

“Having a ‘spec’ building seems to be a good way to get businesses to look at your community, when otherwise they may not,” Sepic said.