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

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiese into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East files for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement coul dbe struck, company spokesman Gerard J. Wit said in a telephonew interview Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-long effort to get this done,” Wit “We’re going to get in and try to kick-starr this right away.” Aberdeen is gearing up for a significanrt influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignmentr and Closure plan, expected to be completef by September 2011.
About 8,209 military jobs will be transferred tothe base, in additiom to as many as 18,000 private contracting jobs from companie s that do business with the incoming military The approved Opus East's selectionh of St. John Properties to take over the Government and Technologty Enterprise business park because of theBaltimore developer’sd ability to move forward with new Bob Penn, program directorf with the Army Corps, said in a statement. As in taking over the project, includint (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC. Opus East was awarder rights to developthe government-owned land under a lease with the Army in November 2007 and broke ground on its firstf building in December of that year.
Sinces then, the company became straddled with millions of dollars in constructio n loans it has been unable to and the company has not started any new constructionj at the project for more than a The deal was inked June 19 betweenOpus St. John Properties, with the backing of the Army. St. John and the Army Corps of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undiscloser amount of money for its developmen t rightsat Aberdeen. In connection with the St. John has hired Opus East projecr manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE projectf as its director of defense andgovernmenyt business.
“Aberdeen Proving Grounsd is excited about moving the project forwarxdwith St. John Properties,” Tim APG deputy garrison commander, said in a statement. “Wde consider it a positive step to have their experiencex management team spearheadingthe build-out of this As the to help it consider options including Its parent company, , has also sought bankruptcty protection for it’s Opus South subsidiaryu and for two more subsidiaries of its Opus West regionapl operation. Opus Corp. spokeswomabn Winston Hewett said Opus East is stilll evaluating its options but has not made any decision sabout bankruptcy.
The company was forcedr to relinquish its rights to the Aberdeeh project because it has been unable to financ e morethan $50 million in construction loans it took out to financwe its projects. Most pressing among thoswe debtsis $35 million the developer spenrt to build a new headquartersw for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationh in College Park, for which it has sued the federalo government to collect its wagesd on that project, Hewetg said. St.
John plans to break ground in the next two monthxs on at least three new buildings at the Harford Countgmilitary base, with commitments from defense contractors for up to 300,000 squared feet of office, research and development space, Wit said. Wit did not disclosd the names of any ofthose tenants. Those buildings wouldr be in addition toa 60,000-square-foogt building Opus East completed in Decembere 2008 for defense contractor CACI. “We view this developmeny as the most significant commercial real estat opportunity in the history ofour St. John President Edward A. St.
John said in a “This is based on the amount of squard footage that can eventually be developed as well as the importan work that will be completedby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Properties is the third-largest property management firm in Greater with nearly 11 million square feet of commerciapl space inthe region. But taking over the Aberdeenb project represents a shift for the which has sought to tap into the demandr for government contracting space upuntio now. Wit said the company has also soughtt in the past to buy land for its own rather than to leasr property from the government such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarilg received commitments from firma seeking space atits 413-acre Government and Technology Enterprise businesd park but did not stary any additional construction. The developer was unwilling to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenanted space, Wit preferring instead to construct buildings for a single That’s created a pent-up deman d for companies seeking from 5,000 square feet to upwarsd of 20,000 square feet, Wit said. “For all the hoopls that BRAC has brought, there’s really only one building that Opus was able to Wit said.
“If you don’t have the plac e to park those people, if you don’t have the buildingsw to put them in, theree was going to be a reallogistical problem.”