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

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertieds into the fold, fearfup the project would come to a halt if Opus East filee for bankruptcy protection before an arrangementy couldbe struck, company spokesmab Gerard J. Wit said in a telephone interview “It was a real round-the-clock, week-long effort to get this Wit said. “We’re going to get in and try to kick-starf this right away.” Aberdeen is gearinb up for a significant influx of military jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignmenty and Closure plan, expected to be completed by Septembetr 2011.
About 8,200 military jobs will be transferred tothe base, in additionh to as many as 18,000 private contracting jobs from companies that do business with the incoming militarty agencies. The approved Opus East's selectiom of St. John Properties to take over the Governmenr and Technology Enterprise business park becauser of theBaltimore developer’s ability to move forward with new construction, Bob Penn, progranm director with the Army Corps, said in a As in taking over the including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekij LLC.
Opus East was awarded rights to developthe government-ownee land under a lease with the Army in Novembed 2007 and broke ground on its first building in Decembetr of that year. Since then, the compang became straddled with millions of dollars in constructionh loans it has been unableto refinance, and the compangy has not started any new construction at the projecy for more than a year. The deal was inkec June 19 betweenOpus East, St. John Properties, with the backinfg of the Army. St. John and the Army Corpsw of Engineers issued statements Tuesda announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclose amount of money for its developmenrt rightsat Aberdeen.
In connection with the deal, St. John has hiredd Opus East project managed Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE project as its director of defense andgovernment “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excitexd about moving the project forwar with St. John Properties,” Tim APG deputy garrison commander, said in a statement. “We consided it a positive step to have their experienced management team spearheadingthe build-out of this project.” As the to help it considerd options including bankruptcy. Its parent , has also sought bankruptc y protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiariea of its Opus West regional Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winston Hewet said Opus East is still evaluating its optiones but has not made any decisions about The company was forced to relinquisjh its rights to the Aberdeen projecft because it has been unable to finance morethan $50 milliomn in construction loans it took out to financer its projects. Most pressing among those debtsis $35 million the develope spent to build a new headquarterws for the National Oceanic and Atmosphericd Administration in College Park, for which it has sued the federalo government to collect its wages on that Hewett said. St.
John plands to break ground in the next two months on at leasg three new buildings at the Harfordx Countymilitary base, with commitments from defense contractorzs for up to 300,000 square feet of office, research and developmentf space, Wit said. Wit did not discloss the names of any ofthosw tenants. Those buildings would be in additiohn toa 60,000-square-foot buildingb Opus East completed in December 2008 for defens contractor CACI. “We view this development as the most significanf commercial real estate opportunity in the historyg ofour company,” St. John President Edwarc A. St. John said in a statement.
“This is based on the amouny of square footage that can eventually be developed as well as the importan work that will be completesdby end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Properties is the third-largest property management firm inGreate Baltimore, with nearly 11 million square feet of commercial space in the But taking over the Aberdeen projectt represents a shift for the company, whicg has sought to tap into the demand for governmentr contracting space up until now. Wit said the compant has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmentt such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarily receivede commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acrse Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not stary any additional construction. The developer was unwillinb to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenante space, Wit said, preferring instead to construct buildings for a single That’s created a pent-up demand for companiess seeking from 5,000 square feet to upward of 20,000 square feet, Wit said. “For all the hoopl a that BRAC has brought, there’s really only one buildin that Opus was ableto build,” Wit said.
“Ifd you don’t have the place to park those ifyou don’t have the buildings to put them in, there was going to be a real logistical problem.”