St. John Properties takes over Opus East business park at Aberdeen Proving Ground - The Business Review (Albany):

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Properties into the fold, fearful the projecg would come to a halt if Opus East filedr for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement couldbe struck, compang spokesman Gerard J. Wit said in a telephonre 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 significany influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure plan, expected to be completed by September 2011.
About 8,200 military jobs will be transferred to the in addition to as manyas 18,000p private contracting jobs from companies that do business with the incomintg military agencies. The approved Opus East's selectio of St. John Properties to take over the Government and Technologgy Enterprise business park because of theBaltimore developer’es ability to move forwarsd with new construction, Bob Penn, progranm director with the Army Corps, said in a statement. As in takingb over the project, including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awardee rights to developthe government-ownedx land under a lease with the Army in November 2007 and broked ground on its first building in Decemberr of that year. Since then, the company becames straddled with millions of dollares in construction loans it has been unablewto refinance, and the company has not started any new constructio n at the project for more than a The deal was inked June 19 between Opus East, St. John with the backing of the Army. St. John and the Army Corpsz of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcing the Witsaid St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosesd amount of money for its developmengt rightsat Aberdeen. In connection with the St.
John has hired Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE projectf as its director of defense andgovernment “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excitesd about moving the project forward with St. John Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrison commander, said in a “We consider it a positivd step to have their experienced management team spearheadinthe build-out of this project.” As the to help it consideer options including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also soughrt bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiariezs of its Opus West regional operation.
Opus spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is still evaluatinbg its options but has not made any decisionsabouft bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquish its righta to the Aberdeen project because it has been unable to financed morethan $50 million in constructionn loans it took out to finance its projects. Most pressing among those debtsis $35 million the developef spent to build a new headquarters for the National Oceanivc and Atmospheric Administration in College for which it has sued the federal governmengt to collect its wages on that project, Hewett St.
John plans to breamk ground in the next two months on at leastt three new buildings at the Harford Countygmilitary base, with commitments from defense contractors for up to 300,000 square feet of office, research and development Wit said. Wit did not disclose the names of any ofthose tenants. Those buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-footy building Opus East completed in December 2008 for defense contractof CACI. “We view this development as the most significanrt commercial real estate opportunity in the historty ofour company,” St. John President Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amount of squaree footage that can eventually be developed as well as the importan t work that will be completedby end-userw that occupy this St. John Properties is the third-largest property management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million squarew feet of commercial spac e inthe region. But taking over the Aberdeen project represents a shift forthe company, whicgh has sought to tap into the demand for governmentg contracting space up until now. Wit said the compangy has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmenty such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarily receives commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acre Governmentf and Technology Enterprise business park but did not startg any additional construction. The developer was unwillin to divide any of its buildingwinto multi-tenanted space, Wit said, preferring insteadx to construct buildings for a single tenant. That’s create d a pent-up demand for companies seekingfrom 5,000p square feet to upward of 20,000 square Wit said. “For all the hooplaz that BRAC has brought, there’s really only one buildingt that Opus was able to Wit said.
“If you don’rt have the place to park those people, if you don’t have the buildingw to put them in, there was going to be a real logistical problem.”