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 feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiea into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filed for bankruptcy protection before an arrangementt couldbe struck, company spokesmanj Gerard J. Wit said in a telephons interview Tuesday. “It was a real week-long effort to get this done,” Wit “We’re going to get in and try to kick-stargt this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significangt influx of military jobs undethe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by September 2011.
About 8,200o military jobs will be transferred tothe base, in additioh to as many as 18,000 private contractinyg jobs from companies that do businesxs with the incoming military agencies. The approve d Opus East's selection of St. John Propertie s to take over the Government and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimore 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 Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awardefd rights to developthe government-ownedf land under a lease with the Army in November 2007 and broks ground on its firsft building in December of that Since then, the company became straddled with millions of dollar s in construction loans it has been unabler to refinance, and the company has not starter any new construction at the project for more than a The deal was inked June 19 between Opus St. John Properties, with the backing of the St. John and the Army Corps of Engineerzs issued statements Tuesday announcing the Witsaid St. John will pay Opus East an undiscloserd amount of money for its development rightsat Aberdeen. In connection with the deal, St.
John has hiree Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE project as its directore of defense andgovernmentt business. “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excitedx about moving the projecg forwardwith St. John Properties,” Tim McNamara, APG deputyy garrison commander, said in a statement. “We considetr it a positive step to have theidr experienced management team spearheadingthe build-outf of this project.” As the to help it consider options including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also sought bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiariews of its Opus West regional operation. Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winsto Hewett said Opus East is still evaluating its options but has not made any decisiondabout bankruptcy. The company was forcee to relinquish its rights to the Aberdeen projectr because it has been unable to finance morethan $50 milliohn in construction loans it took out to financee its projects. Most pressing among those debtis $35 million the develope r spent to build a new headquarters for the National Oceanicc and Atmospheric Administration in Collegr Park, for which it has sued the federal governmenrt to collect its wages on that project, Hewetgt said. St.
John plans to brea ground in the next two months on at least three new buildinges at the Harford Countgymilitary base, with commitments from defense contractorw for up to 300,000 square feet of research and development space, Wit Wit did not disclose the names of any of thoser tenants. Those buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-fooy building Opus East completed in Decembed 2008 for defense contractor “We view this development as the most significanyt commercial real estate opportunity in the historg of our company,” St. John President Edwar d A. St. John said in a statement.
“This is basec on the amount of square footage that can eventually be developed as well as the important work that will be completerby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Propertied is the third-largest property management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million square feet of commercial spacw inthe region. But takinyg over the Aberdeen project represents a shifft forthe company, which has sought to tap into the demanf for government contracting space up until now. Wit said the compang has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmentf such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarily receivecd commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acre Governmentf and Technology Enterprise businessd park but did not start any additionao construction. The developer was unwilling to divide any of its buildingainto multi-tenanted space, Wit said, preferring instea to construct buildings for a single tenant. That’w created a pent-up demand for companies seeking from 5,000 square feet to upward of 20,000 squarew 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’t have the place to park those people, if you don’t have the buildings to put them in, theres was going to be a reallogistical problem.”