St. John Properties takes over Opus East business park at Aberdeen Proving Ground - Washington Business Journal:

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertie s into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filef for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement coulddbe struck, company spokesman Gerard J. Wit said in a telephonr interview Tuesday. “It was a real week-long effort to get this Wit said. “We’re going to get in and try to kick-starg this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significant influs of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by September 2011.
Abou t 8,200 military jobs will be transferred to the in addition to as manyas 18,000 private contracting jobs from companiess that do business with the incominbg military agencies. The selected St. John Propertie s to take over the Government and Technologyu Enterprise business park because of theBaltimore developer’zs ability to move forward with new construction, Bob program director with the Army Corps, said in a statement. As in taking over the project, including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC. Opus East was awardexd rights to developthe government-owned land undetr a lease with the Army in Novembe 2007 and broke ground on its first building in Decembefr of that year.
Since then, the compangy became straddled with millions of dollare in construction loans it has been unable to refinance, and the company has not startede any new construction at the project for more than a The deal was inked June 19 betweeh Opus East, St. John Properties and the Wit said. St. John and the Army Corpzs of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcinggthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosed amount of money for its development rightwsat Aberdeen. In connection with the St. John has hired Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrooko to oversee the GATE project as its director of defensre andgovernment business.
“Aberdeemn Proving Ground is excited about movin the project forwardwith St. John Properties,” Tim APG deputy garrison commander, said in a “We consider it a positive step to have their experienceds management team spearheadingthe build-out of this As the to help it consider options including Its D.C.-area projects have also been . Its parentg company, , has also sought bankruptcy protection for its Opus Southj subsidiary and for two more subsidiaries of its Opus Westregionalk operation. Opus Corp. spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is stillk evaluating its options but has not made any decisionseabout bankruptcy.
The company was forced to relinquish its rightsa to the Aberdeen project becausw it has been unable to finance morethan $50 million in construction loans it took out to financd its projects. Most pressing among those debtsis $35 million the developedr spent to build a new headquarters for the National Oceanicc and Atmospheric Administration in Collegse Park, for which it has sued the federal governmenyt to collect its wages on that Hewett said. St.
John plans to break grounc in the next two months on at leasyt three new buildings at the Harford Counttmilitary base, with commitments from defense contractor for up to 300,000 square feet of office, research and development space, Wit Wit did not disclose the namezs of any of those tenants. Those buildings wouls be in addition toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completefd in December 2008 for defense contractotr CACI. “We view this development as the most significant commercial real estatde opportunity in the history ofour company,” St. John Presidentf Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amount of square footage that can eventuallu be developed as well as the important work that will be completefdby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Properties is the third-largesft property management firm inGreater Baltimore, with nearly 11 million square feet of commercial space in the But taking over the Aberdee project represents a shift for the company, whicn has sought to tap into the demand for governmengt contracting space up until now. Wit said the compan has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmen t such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarily received commitmentws from firms seeking space atits 413-acrre Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not stary any additional construction. The developetr was unwilling to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenantes space, Wit said, preferring instead to construct buildinga for a single tenant. That’s createdx a pent-up demand for companies seekingfrom 5,00 square feet to upward of 20,000 squars 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 place to park thosed people, if you don’t have the buildingsw to put them in, there was goingy to be a reallogistical problem.”