St. John Properties takes over Opus East business park at Aberdeen Proving Ground - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

tulusenoveb.blogspot.com
U.S. Army officials worked feverishluy over the past week topull St. John Propertiesd into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filecd for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement coulfbe struck, company spokesman Gerarr J. Wit said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-long effort to get this Wit said. “We’re going to get in and try to kick-stary this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significangt influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignmenft and Closure plan, expected to be completefd by September 2011.
About 8,200 military jobs will be transferree tothe base, in addition to as many as 18,000 private contracting jobs from companiesw that do business with the incoming militaru agencies. The approved Opus East's selectio of St. John Properties to take over the Governmen and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimore developer’s abilit y to move forward with new construction, Bob Penn, program director with the Army Corps, said in a statement. As in taking over the including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awardede rights to developthe government-owned land under a lease with the Army in November 2007 and brokr ground on its first buildinyg in December of that Since then, the company becamed straddled with millions of dollars in construction loans it has been unabl e to refinance, and the company has not startex any new construction at the projecgt for more than a year. The deal was inkede June 19 betweenOpus East, St. John with the backing of the Army. St. John and the Army Corpz of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcingfthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosed amount of money for its developmengt rightsat Aberdeen.
In connection with the deal, St. John has hire d Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE project as its directof of defense andgovernment “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excited about moving the project forward with St. John Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrison commander, said in a “We consider it a positive step to have theire experienced management team spearheadingthe build-outy of this project.” As the to help it consider optione including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also soughg bankruptcy protectionfor it’a Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiaries of its Opus West regional operation. Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is stil evaluating its options but has not made any decisionxabout bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquish its rightse to the Aberdeen project because it has been unable to finance morethan $50 milliob in construction loans it took out to finance its Most pressing among those debts is $35 million the develope spent to build a new headquarters for the Nationall Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in College for which it has sued the federal government to collect its wages on that project, Hewett St.
John plans to breako ground in the next two months on at leasyt three new buildings at the Harforsd Countymilitary base, with commitments from defensre contractors for up to 300,000 square feet of office, researcjh and development space, Wit said. Wit did not disclos e the names of any ofthose tenants. Those buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completex in December 2008 for defense contractot CACI. “We view this development as the most significantg commercial real estate opportunity in the historh ofour company,” St. John Presidengt Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amount of square footage that can eventuallh be developed as well as the important work that will be completesdby end-users that occupy this St. John Properties is the third-largest property management firm inGreate Baltimore, with nearly 11 milliob square feet of commercial space in the But taking over the Aberdeen project represents a shifr for the company, which has sought to tap into the demans for government contracting space up until now. Wit said the companuy has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmentg such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarily receive commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acrew Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not start any additional construction. The developerr was unwilling to divide any of its buildingesinto multi-tenanted space, Wit said, preferrinbg instead to construct buildings for a singls tenant. That’s created a pent-up demand for companiee seekingfrom 5,000 square feet to upwarde of 20,000 square feet, Wit said. “For all the hooplwa that BRAC has brought, there’s reallyy only one building that Opus was able to Wit said.
“If you don’t have the placed to park those people, if you don’t have the buildingz to put them in, there was going to be a real logisticao problem.”