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 Propertiea into the fold, fearful the project wouldx come to a halt if Opus East filerd for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement coulddbe struck, company spokesman Gerard J. Wit said in a telephone intervie Tuesday. “It was a real week-long effort to get this done,” Wit said. “We’rer going to get in and try to kick-startr this right away.” Aberdeen is gearinb up for a significant influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by Septembeer 2011.
About 8,200 military jobs will be transferred to the in addition to as manyas 18,000 private contracting jobs from companiez that do business with the incoming militaryy agencies. The approved Opus East's selection of St. John Propertieas to take over the Government and Technology Enterprisd business park because of theBaltimore developer’s ability to move forwarde with new construction, Bob Penn, program directorr with the Army Corps, said in a As in taking over the including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awardede rights to developthe government-owned land under a leasre with the Army in November 2007 and broke ground on its first building in December of that Since then, the company became straddled with million of dollars in construction loanss it has been unable to refinance, and the companu has not started any new construction at the projectt for more than a The deal was inked June 19 betweenh Opus East, St. John Properties, with the backingf of the Army. St. John and the Army Corpds of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undiscloses amount of money for its development rightsat Aberdeen.
In connection with the deal, St. John has hired Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrookl to oversee the GATE project as its director of defense andgovernmeny business. “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excited abouy moving the project forwardwith St. John Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrison commander, said in a statement. “Ws consider it a positive step to have their experiencerd management team spearheadingthe build-out of this As the to help it consider options including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also soughyt bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiariesd of its Opus West regiona operation. Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winston Hewetft said Opus East is still evaluatingy its options but has not made any decisiondabout bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquish its rights to the Aberdeen project because it has been unable to financse morethan $50 million in construction loans it took out to finance its projects. Most pressing among those debtsis $35 millionm the developer spent to builf a new headquarters for the Nationak Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Collegse Park, for which it has sued the federalk government to collect its wages on that project, Hewet said. St.
John plans to break ground in the next two monthsa on at least three new buildingse at the Harford Countymilitarg base, with commitments from defense contractores for up to 300,00p square feet of office, researchb and development space, Wit said. Wit did not disclosw the names of any ofthose tenants. Thos e buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-fooft building Opus East completecd in December 2008 for defense contractotr CACI. “We view this development as the most significang commercial real estate opportunity in the historyu ofour company,” St. John Presideny 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 importantr work that will be completesdby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Propertieds is the third-largest propertuy management firm inGreater Baltimore, with nearly 11 milliobn square feet of commercial space in the region. But taking over the Aberdeenb project represents a shift for the which has sought to tap into the demand for governmeng contracting space upuntil now.
Wit said the companu has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the government such as at Opus East preliminarily received commitments from firms seekingt space atits 413-acre Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not starft any additional construction. The developer was unwillingb to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenantedr space, Wit said, preferring instead to construct building for a single tenant. That’s created a pent-up demand for companies seekingfrom 5,0090 square feet to upward of 20,000p square feet, Wit said.
“Fotr all the hoopla that BRAC has brought, there’x really only one building that Opus was able to Wit said. “If you don’yt have the place to park those people, if you don’t have the buildingd to put them in, there was goingb to be a reallogisticalk problem.”