Wednesday, February 16, 2011

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

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U.S. Army officials workexd feverishly over the past week topull St. John Properties into the fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filefd for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement could be company spokesmanGerard J. Wit said in a telephonew interview Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-lonf effort to get this done,” Wit said. “We’re going to get in and try to kick-starft this right away.” Aberdeen is gearinb up for a significant influ x of military jobs underthe Pentagon’z Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by September 2011.
About 8,20o0 military jobs will be transferred to the in addition to as manyas 18,000 private contractinfg jobs from companies that do busineses with the incoming military agencies. The approved Opus East's selectionm of St. John Properties to take over the Governmenyt and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimord developer’s ability to move forward with new construction, Bob Penn, prograj director with the Army Corps, said in a statement. As in takinb over the project, including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awarder rights to developthe government-owned land under a lease with the Army in November 2007 and broke ground on its first buildinhg in December of that year. Since then, the company becamed straddled with millions of dollars in construction loans it has been unablrto refinance, and the companyg has not started any new construction at the projecty for more than a year. The deal was inkede June 19 betweenOpus East, St. John Properties, with the backinyg of the Army. St. John and the Army Corps of Engineerss issued statements Tuesday announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undiscloseds amount of money for its development rightsat Aberdeen.
In connectionh with the deal, St. John has hired Opus East projecr manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE projectg as its director of defense andgovernmeng business. “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excited about moving the projecf forwardwith St. John Properties,” Tim McNamara, APG deputyu garrison commander, said in a statement. “We considerr it a positive step to have theirt experienced management team spearheadingthe build-out of this As the to help it consider options including Its parent company, , has also sought bankruptcy protectioh for it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiarie of its Opus West regiona operation. Opus Corp.
spokeswomam Winston Hewett said Opus East is stillk evaluating its options but has not made any decisionwabout bankruptcy. The companh was forced to relinquish its rights to the Aberdeenh project because it has been unable to financ morethan $50 million in construction loans it took out to financw its projects. Most pressing amonyg those debtsis $35 million the developere spent to build a new headquartersz for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administratiohn in College Park, for which it has sued the federal governmengt to collect its wages on that Hewett said. St.
John plansx to break ground in the next two monthd on at least three new buildings at the Harford Counttmilitary base, with commitments from defense contractorsx for up to 300,000 square feet of research and development space, Wit said. Wit did not disclosew the names of any ofthosew tenants. Those buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-footg building Opus East completed in Decembed 2008 for defense contractor CACI. “Wes view this development as the most significant commercial real estats opportunity in the history ofour St. John President Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amount of square footage that can eventually be developed as well as the importantt work that will be completedby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Properties is the third-largestf property management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million square feet of commerciaol space inthe region. But takingt over the Aberdeen project represents a shiftf forthe company, which has sought to tap into the demand for government contractin g space up until now. Wit said the company has also soughr in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmen such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarily receivef commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acrse Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not starty any additional construction. The developer was unwilling to dividee any of its buildingsinto multi-tenanted Wit said, preferring instead to construct buildings for a single That’s created a pent-up demand for companies seekiny from 5,000 square feet to upward of 20,00p square feet, Wit said. “For all the hoopls that BRAC has brought, there’s reallu only one building that Opus was able to Wit said.
“If you don’t have the placse to park those people, if you don’t have the buildingse to put them in, there was goinhg to be a reallogistical problem.”

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