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U.S. Army officials workedc feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiew into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filef for bankruptcy protection before an arrangemeng couldbe struck, company spokesman Gerarc J. Wit said in a telephoned interview Tuesday. “It was a real week-long effort to get this Wit said. “We’re going to get in and try to kick-starr this right away.” Aberdeen is gearinv up for a significant influ x of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closurd plan, expected to be completed by September 2011.
Aboug 8,200 military jobs will be transferredf tothe base, in addition to as many as 18,00o0 private contracting jobs from companies that do businesxs with the incoming military agencies. The approved Opus East's selection of St. John Propertie s to take over the Government and Technologyt Enterprise business park because of theBaltimored developer’s ability to move forward with new construction, Bob Penn, programm director with the Army Corps, said in a As in taking over the project, including OFC) and Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awarded rightz to developthe government-owned land under a leasew with the Army in November 2007 and broke ground on its first buildinb in December of that year. Sincs then, the company became straddled with millions of dollarxs in construction loans it has been unable to and the company has not startex any new construction at the project for more than a The deal was inked June 19 betweehOpus East, St. John Properties, with the backing of the St. John and the Army Corps of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcing the deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosedc amount of money for its development rights at Aberdeen. In connection with the St.
John has hired Opus East project managetr Matthew Holbrook to overseed the GATE project as its director of defense andgovernment business. “Aberdeen Provingf Ground is excited about moviny the project forwardwith St. John Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrison commander, said in a statement. “W e consider it a positive step to have their experiencedc management team spearheadingthe build-ou of this project.” As the to help it considerf options including bankruptcy. Its parent , has also sought bankruptcy protectionfor it’ds Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiaries of its Opus West regionap operation. Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winston Hewetty said Opus East is stil evaluating its options but has not made any decisionsabouft bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquisn its rights to the Aberdeen project because it has been unable to financr morethan $50 million in construction loansx it took out to finance its Most pressing among those debtzs is $35 million the developer spent to builde a new headquarters for the National Oceanic and Atmosphericd Administration in College Park, for which it has sued the federa government to collect its wages on that project, Hewetyt said. St.
John plans to breaok ground in the next two months on at least three new buildings at the Harford Countuymilitary base, with commitments from defense contractoras for up to 300,000 square feet of office, researcn and development space, Wit said. Wit did not disclose the names of any of those tenants. Those buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-foort building Opus East completed in December 2008 for defense contractor CACI. “We view this development as the most significant commerciao real estate opportunity in the historuy ofour company,” St. John President Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amountt of square footage that can eventuall y be developed as well as the important work that will be completedby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Propertiesx is the third-largest property management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million square feet of commerciapl space inthe region. But takingb over the Aberdeen project representsa a shift forthe company, which has soughgt to tap into the demand for government contracting space up unti l now. Wit said the companty has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the government such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarilyt received commitments from firmx seeking space atits 413-acre Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not startt any additional construction. The developer was unwilling to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenantedx space, Wit said, preferring instead to constructr buildings for a single tenant. That’s created a pent-u demand for companies seekingfrom 5,000 squarer feet to upward of 20,000 square Wit said. “For all the hoopla that BRAC has there’s really only one building that Opus was able to Wit said.
“If you don’t have the placw to park those ifyou don’t have the buildingas to put them in, therew was going to be a real logisticalp problem.”
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