St. John Properties takes over Opus East business park at Aberdeen Proving Ground - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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U.S. Army officials workes feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiesd into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filec for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement could be company spokesmanGerard J. Wit said in a telephoner interview Tuesday. “It was a real week-long effort to get this done,” Wit “We’re going to get in and try to kick-startr this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significantg influx of military jobs underrthe Pentagon’s Base Realignmen t and Closure plan, expected to be completecd by September 2011.
About 8,200 military jobs will be transferred to the in addition to as manyas 18,009 private contracting jobs from companies that do business with the incomin military agencies. The approvede Opus East's selection of St. John Properties to take over the Governmentt and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimor developer’s ability to move forwards with new construction, Bob Penn, program director with the Army said in a statement. As in takinv over the project, including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awarded rights to develo pthe government-owned land under a leas with the Army in November 2007 and brokr ground on its first building in Decemberr of that year. Since the company became straddled with millionsw of dollars in construction loans it has been unable to and the company has not started any new constructionj at the project for more thana year. The deal was inked June 19 betweenOpus East, St. John Properties, with the backingg of the Army. St. John and the Army Corpsw of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosex amount of money for its developmen t rightsat Aberdeen. In connection with the St.
John has hired Opus East projectg manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE projectr as its director of defense andgovernment “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excitee about moving the project forward with St. John Properties,” Tim APG deputy garrison commander, said in a “We consider it a positive step to have theie experienced management team spearheadingthe build-outy of this project.” As the to help it considet options including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also soughft bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiariees of its Opus West regional Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is stil l evaluating its options but has not made any decisionzabout bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquisb its rights to the Aberdeen project because it has been unable to finance morethan $50 million in construction loans it took out to finance its projects. Most pressinf among those debtsis $35 million the developer spent to builfd a new headquarters for the National Oceani and Atmospheric Administration in College Park, for whicj it has sued the federal government to collecrt its wages on that Hewett said. St.
John plans to breaj ground in the next two months on at least threew new buildings at the Harfordd Countymilitary base, with commitmentd from defense contractors for up to 300,00 0 square feet of office, research and development space, Wit said. Wit did not disclosw the names of any ofthose tenants. Those buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-foot buildingt Opus East completed in December 2008 for defense contractor CACI. “We view this development as the most significant commerciakl real estate opportunity in the history ofour St. John President Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amount of squarr footage that can eventually be developedx as well as the important work that will be completesby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Propertiese is the third-largest property management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million squars feet of commercial space inthe region. But takinyg over the Aberdeen project represents a shifty forthe company, which has sought to tap into the demandc for government contracting space up until now.
Wit said the compant has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the government such as at Opus East preliminarily receivec commitments from firms seeking spacde atits 413-acre Government and Technologu Enterprise business park but did not start any additionall construction. The developer was unwillinv to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenanted space, Wit said, preferrin instead to construct buildings for a single tenant. That’s createfd a pent-up demand for companies seekingffrom 5,000 square feet to upward of 20,000 squard feet, Wit said.
“For all the hoopla that BRAC has there’s really only one building that Opus was able to Wit said. “If you don’t have the placd to park those people, if you don’t have the buildinges to put them in, there was going to be a real logisticao problem.”