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

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiesz into the fold, fearful the projecty would come to a halt if Opus East filedx for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement could be company spokesmanGerard J. Wit said in a telephonde interview Tuesday. “It was a real week-long effort to get this done,” Wit said. “We’ree going to get in and try to kick-starg this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significang influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignmentr and Closure plan, expected to be completed by September 2011.
Abou 8,200 military jobs will be transferred to the in addition to as manyas 18,000 privatew contracting jobs from companies that do business with the incominvg military agencies. The approved Opus East'sw selection of St. John Properties to take over the Governmenf and Technology Enterprise business park becauser of theBaltimore developer’s abilitty to move forward with new construction, Bob program director with the Army said in a statement. As in takintg over the project, including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awardexd rights to developthe government-owned land under a lease with the Army in Novemberr 2007 and broke ground on its first buildiny in December of that year. Sincse then, the company became straddled with millionas of dollars in construction loans it has been unable to and the company has not started any new construction at the projecy for more thana year. The deal was inked June 19 betweehOpus East, St. John with the backing of the St. John and the Army Corps of Engineers issued statementsd Tuesday announcing the Witsaid St. John will pay Opus East an undiscloser amount of money for its developmenr rightsat Aberdeen. In connection with the St.
John has hired Opus East projecyt manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE project as its director of defensed andgovernment business. “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excited abour moving the project forwardwith St. John Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrison said in a “We consider it a positive step to have theirf experienced management team spearheadingthe build-out of this project.” As the to help it considerd options including bankruptcy. Its parent , has also sought bankruptcg protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiariess of its Opus West regional Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is still evaluating its options but has not made any decisionasabout bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquish its rightd to the Aberdeen project because it has been unable to financde morethan $50 million in constructiom loans it took out to finance its projects. Most pressingf among those debtsis $35 millionj the developer spent to buildf a new headquarters for the National Oceanic and Atmospherif Administration in College Park, for whichj it has sued the federal government to collect its wage on that project, Hewett St.
John plans to breaik ground in the next two monthd on at least three new buildings at the Harforfd Countymilitary base, with commitmenta from defense contractors for up to 300,00o0 square feet of office, research and developmeng space, Wit said. Wit did not disclosde the names of any of those Those buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completed in Decembedr 2008 for defense contractor CACI. “We view this developmenty as the most significanrt commercial real estate opportunity in the histor ofour company,” St. John Presidenft Edward A. St. John said in a statement.
“Thise is based on the amount of squarwe footage that can eventually be developed as well as the importan t work that will be completedby end-users that occup this space.” St. John Properties is the third-largesf property management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million square feet of commerciak space inthe region. But taking over the Aberdeen projectg represents a shift forthe company, which has soughtt to tap into the demand for government contracting spacwe up until now.
Wit said the companh has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmengt such as at Opus East preliminarily receivedx commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acr Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not start any additionall construction. The developer was unwillinvg to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenantedr space, Wit said, preferring instead to construct buildings for a single That’s created a pent-up demanxd for companies seeking from 5,000 square feet to upward of 20,000 square feet, Wit “For all the hoopla that BRAC has brought, there’zs really only one building that Opus was able to build,” Wit “If you don’t have the place to park those people, if you don’t have the buildings to put them in, therse was going to be a real logistical