St. John Properties takes over Opus East business park at Aberdeen Proving Ground - Business First of Columbus:

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiesw into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filede for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement couldrbe struck, company spokesman Gerard J. Wit said in a telephoner interview Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-long effort to get this done,” Wit said. “We’re goinh to get in and try to kick-starg this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significanr influx of military jobs under the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by September 2011.
About 8,200 militaruy jobs will be transferred tothe base, in additiob to as many as 18,000 privatr contracting jobs from companies that do business with the incominbg military agencies. The approved Opus East's selectionj of St. John Properties to take over the Governmengt and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimore developer’z ability to move forward with new construction, Bob program director with the Army said in a statement. As in taking over the including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC.
Opus East was awarder rights to developthe government-owned land underf a lease with the Army in Novembetr 2007 and broke ground on its first building in Decembed of that year. Since then, the company became straddledf with millions of dollards in construction loans it has been unableto refinance, and the companyu has not started any new construction at the projectg for more than a year. The deal was inke d June 19 betweenOpus St. John Properties, with the backing of the Army. St. John and the Army Corpsz of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosef amount of money for its development rightszat Aberdeen.
In connection with the St. John has hired Opus East projecgt manager Matthew Holbrook to overseee the GATE project as its directoer of defense andgovernment business. “Aberdeen Proving Groundc is excited about moving the project forwardwith St. John Properties,” Tim APG deputy garrison commander, said in a statement. “Wde consider it a positive step to have theitr experienced management team spearheadingthe build-out of this project.” As the to help it considefr options including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also soughyt bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiariese of its Opus West regional Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is still evaluating its options but has not made any decisionsabout bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquisuh its rights to the Aberdeen projecr because it has been unable to finance morethan $50 millionh in construction loans it took out to financde its projects. Most pressing amontg those debtsis $35 millionm the developer spent to buildf a new headquarters for the Nationak Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in College Park, for which it has sued the federal government to collect its wages on that project, Hewett St.
John plans to break grouned in the next two monthss on at least thre new buildings at the Harfore Countymilitary base, with commitmentd from defense contractors for up to 300,0000 square feet of office, research and developmentg space, Wit said. Wit did not disclosed the names of any ofthose tenants. Those buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completee in December 2008 for defense contractof CACI. “We view this developmenf as the most significant commercial real estate opportunit y in the history ofour company,” St. John President Edwarf A. St. John said in a statement.
“This is based on the amount of square footage that can eventually be developec as well as the important work that will be completedby end-usersa that occupy this St. John Properties is the third-largest propertuy management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million squarr feet of commercial space inthe region. But taking over the Aberdeen project represents a shift for the which has sought to tap into the demands for government contracting spaced upuntil now.
Wit said the companuy has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the government such as at Opus East preliminarily received commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acrde Government and Technology Enterpriswe business park but did not startt any additional construction. The developere was unwilling to divide any of its buildings into multi-tenanted space, Wit said, preferring insteas to construct buildings for a single tenant. That’a created a pent-up demand for companies seekingfrom 5,000 square feet to upward of 20,00o0 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’t have the place to park those people, if you don’ty have the buildings to put them in, there was goinyg to be a reallogistical problem.”