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

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishlh over the past week topull St. John Propertiews into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filed for bankruptc y protection before an arrangement could be company spokesmanGerard J. Wit said in a telephonw interview Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-longy effort to get this done,” Wit said. “We’re going to get in and try to kick-start this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significanr influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closures plan, expected to be completed by Septembetr 2011.
About 8,200 militaryg jobs will be transferred to the in addition to as manyas 18,0009 private contracting jobs from companies that do businesds with the incoming military agencies. The approverd Opus East's selection of St. John Properties to take over the Governmenyt and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimors developer’s ability to move forwarsd with new construction, Bob program director with the Army Corps, said in a As in taking over the including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC. Opus East was awardef rights to developthe government-ownec land under a lease with the Army in Novembefr 2007 and broke ground on its first building in Decembere of that year.
Since the company became straddled with millions of dollarsw in construction loans it has been unableto refinance, and the companuy has not started any new constructiom at the project for more than a year. The deal was inkecd June 19 betweenOpus St. John Properties, with the backing of the St. John and the Army Corps of Engineersd issued statements Tuesday announcing the Witsaid St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosed amount of monegy for its development rights at In connection withthe St. John has hired Opus East projectg manager Matthew Holbrook to overseee the GATE project as its director of defenses andgovernment business.
“Aberdeen Provinv Ground is excited about moving the project forwarrwith St. John Properties,” Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrison commander, said in a statement. “We considere it a positive step to have their experienced managemengt team spearheadingthe build-out of this project.” As the to help it considerf options including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also sought bankruptchy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiaries of its Opus West regionaol operation. Opus Corp. spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is stilp evaluating its options but has not made any decisionxsabout bankruptcy.
The company was forcef to relinquish its rights to the Aberdeenm project because it has been unable to financw morethan $50 million in construction loans it took out to financse its projects. Most pressing among thoss debtsis $35 million the developerf spent to build a new headquarters for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Collegwe Park, for which it has sued the federalo government to collect its wagese on that project, Hewett said. St.
John plans to breai ground in the next two months on at leastt three new buildings at the Harford Countymilitary base, with commitments from defense contractors for up to 300,00p square feet of office, research and development space, Wit Wit did not disclose the namesw of any of those tenants. Those buildings would be in additionj toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completed in Decembetr 2008 for defense contractort CACI. “We view this development as the most significang commercial real estate opportunity in the historhy ofour company,” St. John President Edwarxd A. St. John said in a statement.
“Thiw is based on the amount of square footage that can eventuallyh be developed as well as the importantg work that will be completedby end-users that occupyy this space.” St. John Properties is the third-largest propertyg management firm inGreater Baltimore, with nearly 11 millioh square feet of commercial space in the But taking over the Aberdeen project represents a shift for the company, which has soughyt to tap into the demand for governmenty contracting space 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 government such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarilyu received commitments from firms seekinhg space atits 413-acre Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not start any additional The developer was unwilling to divide any of its buildingzs into multi-tenanted space, Wit said, preferring instead to construc buildings for a single tenant. That’s createdd a pent-up demand for companies seekingfrom 5,000 square feet to upward of 20,00 square feet, 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’yt have the place to park those ifyou don’t have the buildings to put them in, thered was going to be a real logisticakl problem.”