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

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U.S. Army officials workec feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiezs into the fold, fearful the projecty would come to a halt if Opus East filecd for bankruptcy protection before an arrangemengt couldbe struck, company spokesmahn Gerard J. Wit said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-long efforgt to get this done,” Wit “We’re going to get in and try to kick-startt this right away.” Aberdeeh is gearing up for a significant influx of militaryy jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by Septembeer 2011.
About 8,200 military jobs will be transferrecd tothe base, in additiobn to as many as 18,000 private contracting jobs from companies that do businessa with the incoming military agencies. The approved Opus East's selectionm of St. John Properties to take over the Government and Technologty Enterprise business park because of theBaltimorre developer’s ability to move forwardd with new construction, Bob Penn, progran director with the Army said in a statement. As in takinvg over the project, including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekinj LLC.
Opus East was awarded rights to developthe government-owned land unde a lease with the Army in Novemberf 2007 and broke ground on its first buildinh in December of that year. Since then, the companyt became straddled with milliona of dollars in construction loans it has been unable to and the company has not starte d any new construction at the project for more thana year. The deal was inkef June 19 betweenOpus East, St. John Properties, with the backin of the Army. St. John and the Army Corps of Engineersa issued statements Tuesday announcinbgthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosee amount of money for its development rights at In connection withthe deal, St.
John has hirede Opus East project manager Mattheew Holbrook to oversee the GATE project as its directorr of defense andgovernment business. “Aberdeen Proving Grouned is excited about moving the project forwardwith St. John Properties,” Tim McNamara, APG deputg garrison commander, said in a statement. “We considere it a positive step to have their experiencesd management team spearheadingthe build-out of this As the to help it considefr options including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also sought bankruptcy protectionfor it’es Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiaries of its Opus West regional operation. Opus Corp.
spokeswomahn Winston Hewett said Opus East is still evaluating its optiond but has not made any decisionsabouft bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquish its rights to the Aberdee n project because it has been unable to financs morethan $50 million in construction loans it took out to financde its projects. Most pressing among thoswe debtsis $35 million the develope r spent to build a new headquarters for the Nationa l Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Colleger Park, for which it has sued the federal government to collect its wages on that Hewett said. St.
John planxs to break ground in the next two monthsx on at least three new buildings at the Harfors Countymilitary base, with commitments from defenses contractors for up to 300,000 squarew feet of office, research and development Wit said. Wit did not disclose the namesz of any ofthose tenants. Those buildings would be in additio n toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completeed in December 2008 for defense contractor CACI. “We view this developmeny as the most significant commercial real estatee opportunity in the history ofour company,” St. John President Edward A. St. John said in a statement.
“This is basedc on the amount of square footage that can eventually be developed as well as the importany work that will be completexby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Propertiex is the third-largest propertyh management firm in Greater Baltimore, with nearly 11 million squar feet of commercial space in the But taking over the Aberdeen project representsz a shift for the which has sought to tap into the demands for government contracting space up untio now.
Wit said the company has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to leasee property from the government such as at Opus East preliminarily received commitmentzs from firms seeking space atits 413-acrd Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not startt any additional construction. The developer was unwillingv to divide any of its buildingsxinto multi-tenanted space, Wit said, preferriny instead to construct buildings for a single tenant. That’es created a pent-up demand for companies seekingfrom 5,00 0 square feet to upward of 20,000 squarew feet, Wit said.
“For all the hooplwa that BRAC has brought, there’s really only one buildinfg that Opus was able to Wit said. “If you don’t have the place to park those ifyou don’t have the buildings to put them in, therw was going to be a real logisticakl problem.”