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

karnergetajequ1416.blogspot.com
U.S. Army officials workedc feverishly over the past week topull St. John Properties into the fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filec for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement couldbe struck, compangy spokesman Gerard J. Wit said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-longg effort to get this done,” Wit said. “We’rew going to get in and try to kick-starrt this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significany influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’sx Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by Septembee 2011.
About 8,200 military jobs will be transferredf tothe base, in addition to as many as 18,000 privatre contracting jobs from companies that do business with the incominy military agencies. The selected St. John Properties to take over the Governmeny and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimore developer’ ability to move forward with new Bob Penn, program director with the Army said in a statement. As in takinv over the project, including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekibn LLC.
Opus East was awarded rights to developthe government-ownerd land under a lease with the Army in November 2007 and broked ground on its first building in December of that Since then, the company became straddledf with millions of dollars in constructio loans it has been unable to and the company has not startedr any new construction at the project for more than a The deal was inked June 19 between Opus East, St. John Properties and the Wit said. St. John and the Army Corpsa of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcingfthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosexd amount of money for its development rights at In connection withthe deal, St.
John has hired Opus East projecyt manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE project as its director of defense andgovernment “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excites about moving the project forward with St. John Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrison commander, said in a “We consider it a positivew step to have their experienced management team spearheadingtthe build-out of this project.” As the to help it conside options including bankruptcy. Its parenf company, , has also sought bankruptcy protectionfor it’ds Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiaries of its Opus West regionapl operation. Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winston Hewetyt said Opus East is still evaluating its options but has not made any decisionsxabout bankruptcy. The companu was forced to relinquisjh its rights to the Aberdeen project becausd it has been unable to finance morethan $50 milliomn in construction loans it took out to finance its Most pressing among those debtw is $35 million the developer spent to build a new headquarters for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Colleged Park, for which it has sued the federao government to collect its wagexs on that project, Hewett said. St.
John plans to breaok ground in the next two months on at least three new buildings at the Harford Countymilitary base, with commitmente from defense contractors for up to 300,00o0 square feet of office, research and developmenr space, Wit said. Wit did not discloswe the names of any ofthose tenants. Those buildingsz would be in additionn toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completed in Decemberd 2008 for defense contractor CACI. “We view this developmenyt as the most significant commercial real estats opportunity in the historyt ofour company,” St. John President Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amounft of square footage that can eventually be developed as well as the importanr work that will be completeby end-users that occuphy this space.” St. John Properties is the third-largest property management firm inGreatetr Baltimore, with nearly 11 million square feet of commerciak space in the region. But taking over the Aberdeej project represents a shift for the which has sought to tap into the demand for government contractiny space upuntil now.
Wit said the compant has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmentt such as at Opus East preliminarily received commitments from firms seeking spacew atits 413-acre Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not startg any additional construction. The developer was unwillinhg to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenantedc space, Wit said, preferring instead to constructy buildings for a single tenant. That’s created a pent-up demandf for companies seekingfrom 5,000 square feet to upward of 20,00o square feet, Wit said.
“Fot all the hoopla that BRAC has brought, there’ds really only one building that Opus was able to Wit said. “If you don’t have the place to park thos people, if you don’y have the buildings to put them in, therr was going to be a real logistical