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

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertie into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filex for bankruptcy protection before an arrangemenf couldbe struck, company spokesman Gerarsd J. Wit said in a telephone interviews Tuesday. “It was a real week-long effort to get this Wit said. “We’re going to get in and try to kick-starrt this right away.” Aberdeen is gearinv up for a significant influx of military jobs undertthe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure plan, expected to be completed by September 2011.
About 8,200 militart jobs will be transferred tothe base, in additionm to as many as 18,0090 private contracting jobs from companies that do businessz with the incoming military The approved Opus East's selection of St. John Propertie to take over the Government and Technologhy Enterprise business park because of theBaltimore developer’s abilitgy 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 Maneki LLC. Opus East was awardedx rights to developthe government-ownedc land under a lease with the Army in Novembeer 2007 and broke ground on its first buildinyg in December of that year.
Since then, the company became straddled with milliona of dollars in construction loansa it has been unableto refinance, and the company has not starteed 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 Army. St. John and the Army Corp s of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcingthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosex amount of money for its development rights at In connection withthe deal, St.
John has hiredd Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrooo to oversee the GATE project as its directod of defense andgovernment “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excitedr about moving the project forwarsd with St. John Properties,” Tim McNamara, APG deputt garrison commander, said in a “We consider it a positive step to have their experiencer management team spearheadingthe build-out of this As the to help it consider options including Its parent company, , has also sought bankruptcy protection for it’s Opus South subsidiarty and for two more subsidiarieds of its Opus West regional operation. Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winsto n Hewett said Opus East is still evaluating its optionse but has not made any decisions about bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquish its rightsx to the Aberdeen project because it has been unabler to finance morethan $50 million in construction loans it took out to financ its projects. Most pressing among those debtsis $35 millionn the developer spent to build a new headquarterw for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in College for which it has sued the federapl government to collect its wages on that Hewett said. St.
John plane to break ground in the next two monthsz on at least three new buildings at the Harford Countmilitary base, with commitments from defensde contractors for up to 300,000 square feet of office, researcnh and development space, Wit said. Wit did not discloss the names of any ofthose tenants. Thosre buildings would be in additiobn toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completed in December 2008 for defensed contractor CACI. “We view this development as the most significang commercial real estate 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 important work that will be completedby end-usersd that occupy this St. John Properties is the third-largest property managementy firm in Greater with nearly 11 million square feet of commercia l space inthe region. But taking over the Aberdeem project represents a shif forthe company, which has sought to tap into the demanrd for government contracting space up until now. Wit said the companyh has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmenrt such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarilg received commitments from firms seeking spacre atits 413-acre Government and Technologyt Enterprise business park but did not start any additionall construction. The developer was unwillint to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenanter space, Wit said, preferring instead to construct buildingas for a single tenant. That’sz created a pent-up demand for companiesx seekingfrom 5,000 square feet to upwardc of 20,000 square Wit said.
“For all the hoopla that BRAC has there’s really only one building that Opus was ableto build,” Wit “If you don’t have the place to park those if you don’t have the buildingas to put them in, there was going to be a real logisticalk problem.”