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

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiess 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 interview Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-long effortg to get this done,” Wit said. “We’rer going to get in and try to kick-start this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significantf influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’sw Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by September 2011.
Abougt 8,200 military jobs will be transferresd tothe base, in addition to as many as 18,000 private contracting jobs from companiese that do business with the incoming military The approved Opus East's selection of St. John Properties to take over the Governmentt and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimorwe developer’s ability to move forward with new Bob Penn, program director with the Army Corps, said in a As in taking over the project, including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekim LLC.
Opus East was awardex rights to developthe government-owned land undert a lease with the Army in November 2007 and brokw ground on its first building in December of that Since then, the company became straddledf with millions of dollars in construction loans it has been unable to and the company has not started any new constructionm at the project for more than a The deal was inked June 19 betweehn Opus East, St. John Properties, with the backingg of the Army. St. John and the Army Corpas of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undiscloses amount of money for its developmenf rightsat Aberdeen. In connection with the deal, St.
John has hirefd Opus East project manager Matthe Holbrook to oversee the GATE projec as its director of defensde andgovernment business. “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excite about moving the project forwardwith St. John Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrisonb commander, said in a statement. “We consider it a positive step to have their experiencesd management team spearheadingthe build-out of this As the to help it consider options includinyg bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also sought bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiariese of its Opus West regional operation.
Opus spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is stilk evaluating its options but has not made any decisiondsabout bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquisu its rights to the Aberdee project because it has been unable to finance morethan $50 millioj in construction loans it took out to financed its projects. Most pressing among those debtsis $35 milliojn the developer spent to build a new headquarters for the Nationall Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in College Park, for which it has sued the federalo government to collect its wagesw on that project, Hewett said. St.
John plans to break ground in the next two months on at leasyt three new buildings at the Harford Countymilitaryh base, with commitments from defense contractors for up to 300,00p0 square feet of office, research and development Wit said. Wit did not disclose the namews of any ofthose tenants. Those buildings woulrd be in addition toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completed in December 2008 for defense contractor “We view this development as the most significantf commercial real estate opportunity in the history of our St. John President Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amount of squarre footage that can eventuallyy be developed as well as the important work that will be completeby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Propertiese is the third-largest property management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million square feet of commercial space in the But taking over the Aberdeen project represents a shiftf forthe company, which has soughtt to tap into the demand for government contracting spacse up until now. Wit said the company has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmenf such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarily receivecd commitments from firms seeking spacs atits 413-acre Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not startg any additional construction. The developer was unwilling to divide any of its buildinginto multi-tenanted space, Wit said, preferring instead to construcg buildings for a single tenant. That’s created a pent-u demand for companies seekingfrom 5,009 square feet to upward of 20,0090 square feet, Wit said. “For all the hoopla that BRAC has there’s really only one buildingv that Opus was able to Wit said.
“If you don’t have the place to park thosee people, if you don’t have the buildinge to put them in, there was going to be a real logisticaol problem.”