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

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiees into the fold, fearfulk the project would come to a halt if Opus East filedr for bankruptcy protection before an arrangemenr couldbe struck, company spokesman Gerarxd J. Wit said in a telephone interview “It was a real round-the-clock, week-longt effort to get this done,” Wit “We’re going to get in and try to kick-startr this right away.” Aberdeen is gearinhg up for a significant influx of militaryu jobs underthe Pentagon’ws Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by Septembet 2011.
About 8,200 military jobs will be transferrex tothe base, in addition to as many as 18,00o0 private contracting jobs from companiezs that do business with the incoming military agencies. The approved Opus East' s selection of St. John Properties to take over the Governmenrt and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimorr 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 OFC) and Manekin LLC. Opus East was awardeed rights to developthe government-owned land undef a lease with the Army in Novembef 2007 and broke ground on its first building in Decembefr of that year.
Sincre then, the company became straddled with millions of dollarse in construction loans it has been unable to and the company has not startedd any new construction at the projecg for more thana year. The deal was inkesd June 19 betweenOpus East, St. John Properties, with the backin g of the Army. St. John and the Army Corpse of Engineers issued statements Tuesdah announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosed amount of money for its development righteat Aberdeen. In connection with the deal, St. John has hiref Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE project as its directof of defense andgovernment business.
“Aberdeen Proving Ground is excites about moving the projec forwardwith St. John Properties,” Tim APG deputy garrison commander, said in a statement. “Wee consider it a positive step to have thei experienced management team spearheadingthe build-out of this As the to help it consider optionse including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also soughtr bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiargy and for two more subsidiaries of its Opus West regionaol operation. Opus Corp. spokeswoman Winston Hewety said Opus East is still evaluating its optionw but has not made any decisionsabourt bankruptcy.
The company was forced to relinquish its rightas to the Aberdeen project because it has been unabl e to finance morethan $50 million in constructiomn loans it took out to finance its Most pressing among those debts is $35 million the developer spen t to build a new headquarterxs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheri Administration in College Park, for which it has sued the federap government to collect its wages on that project, Hewetf said. St.
John plans to breaki ground in the next two monthes on at least three new buildingsw at the Harford Countymilitary base, with commitments from defensew contractors for up to 300,000 square feet of research and development space, Wit Wit did not disclose the names of any of thoses tenants. Those buildings would be in additionm toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completedf 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 square footag e that can eventually be developed as well as the importanty work that will be completedby end-userzs that occupy this space.” St. John Propertie s is the third-largest property management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million square feet of commercialk space inthe region. But taking over the Aberdeen projecg represents a shift for the which has sought to tap into the demand for government contracting space upuntil now. Wit said the companyh 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 receiveds commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acre Government and Technology Enterprise busines s park but did not starty any additional construction. The developer was unwilling to divide any of its buildingsxinto multi-tenanted space, Wit said, preferring instead to construcyt buildings for a single tenant. That’s created a pent-u p demand for companies seekingfrom 5,000 square feet to upwarcd of 20,000 square feet, Wit “For all the hooplaw that BRAC has there’s really only one buildin that Opus was able to build,” Wit “If you don’t have the place to park thosr people, if you don’ty have the buildings to put them in, there was gointg to be a real logistical