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 Properties into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filecd for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement could be company spokesmanGerard J. Wit said in a telephone intervieq Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-longy effort to get this done,” Wit said. “We’rr going to get in and try to kick-star this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significant influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignmen and Closure plan, expected to be completed by September 2011.
Aboutt 8,200 military jobs will be transferresd tothe base, in addition to as many as 18,00p0 private contracting jobs from companies that do business with the incoming militaryh agencies. The approved Opus East'as selection of St. John Properties to take over the Governmentr and Technology Enterprise business park becausde of theBaltimore developer’s abilityh to move forward with new construction, Bob Penn, programn director with the Army said in a statement. As in takingy over the project, including OFC) and Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awarded rights to developthe government-owned land under a lease with the Army in Novembert 2007 and broke ground on its first buildingh in December of that year. Since then, the compant became straddled with millions of dollarws in construction loans it has been unable to and the company has not started any new construction at the projectg for more than a The deal was inkesd June 19 betweenOpus East, St. John Properties, with the backingt of the Army. St. John and the Army Corps of Engineerx issued statements Tuesday announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undiscloseds amount of money for its developmenrt rightsat Aberdeen.
In connection with the deal, St. John has hiredx Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrook to oversese the GATE project as its director of defense andgovernment “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excited about moving the projecgt forward with St. John Properties,” Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrisonm commander, said in a statement. “Wde consider it a positive step to have their experienceed management team spearheadingthe build-ourt of this project.” As the to help it conside r options including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also sought bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiaryu and for two more subsidiaried of its Opus West regional operation.
Opus Corp. spokeswomanb Winston Hewett said Opus East is stilll evaluating its options but has not made any decisions about bankruptcy. The company was forcer to relinquish its rights to the Aberdeen project becaused it has been unable to finance morethan $50 millio n in construction loans it took out to financs its projects. Most pressing among those debtsis $35 million the develope spent to build a new headquarters for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Colleg Park, for which it has sued the federal government to collect its wages on that project, Hewettt said. St.
John plans to break grounfd in the next two months on at least three new buildingsz at the Harford Countyymilitary base, with commitments from defense contractorsw for up to 300,000 square feet of office, researcjh and development space, Wit said. Wit did not disclosed the names of any ofthoses tenants. Those buildings woulf be in addition toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completedx in December 2008 for defensw contractor CACI. “We view this development as the most significanr commercial real estate opportunityg in the history ofour company,” St. John Presideny Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amount of squares footage that can eventually be developed as well as the importan t work that will be completedby end-users that occupy this St. John Properties is the third-largest propertg management firm inGreatee Baltimore, with nearly 11 million square feet of commerciao space in the region. But takinv over the Aberdeen project represents a shify forthe company, which has sought to tap into the demane for government contracting space up untilk now. Wit said the company has also soughtr in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmeny such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarily received commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acree Government and Technology Enterprise businessd park but did not start any additiona construction. The developer was unwilling to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenantedf space, Wit said, preferring instea d to construct buildings for a single That’s created a pent-u p demand for companies seeking from 5,000 squares feet to upward of 20,000 square feet, Wit said. “For all the hoopla that BRAC has brought, there’s really only one buildingv that Opus was ableto build,” Wit said.
“If you don’tf have the place to park those ifyou don’t have the buildings to put them in, ther was going to be a real logistical