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Rockville’s Opus East LLC, the developer of a 2 million-square-foot businesd park at AberdeenProvinbg Ground, has slashed its work force and stoppede taking on new projects in response to its financia l problems. The company also has brought on an experft to help it work out its debt s and consider options including filing for Chapter 11 saidWinston Hewett, spokeswoman for parent company Opus of Minnesota. In respons e to those issues, the Army’s top brass at APG met with executived at Opus East to pull togethert a new development team forits 400-acre Governmeny and Technology Enterprise business park.
The project, being built on governmen land inside AberdeenProving Ground, is the largest private development for defense contractors in Harfordr County. Aberdeen is preparing for an influxof 8,200 militarhy jobs being transferred to the base by September 2011 undefr a federal Base Realignment and Closure plan, know n as BRAC. Several thousand supporyt jobs from defense contractors also will be movint tothe area, creating an expected demand for some 2 milliom square feet of privatelyg built space at developments like Opus East’s GATE Just one building has been constructexd at the development.
Military base spokesmabn George Mercer said APG leaders are determinerd not to let the project fail and will do whatevefr they can to select a new developere to make sure the projecftmoves forward. As those discussions take place, Opus East’ss Hewett said executives are weighing whether the compan y or some of its subsidiaries will need to file forbankruptct protection. Opus East has created subsidiaries to manag each of its including APG I and APG II for theAberdeej project, and Hewett said it’s possible one or several of thoses entities might file for leaving Opus East intact. Harford County Economic Development DirectorJames C.
Richardson said he is troublexd by the situation given the yearas ofplanning that’s gone into the base’s expansionn and the economic benefits those projects couls yield. Opus East, like many commercialp real estate developers acrossthe country, facees mounting debts from the short-term construction loanws it took out to start its Hewett said. It has been unable to refinances many ofthose debts, totaling at least $80 because of the sour credit As a result of that Opus East plans to lay off abougt 15 of its 31 employees June 15.
That numbed is down from a staffc of about 100 employeeslast year, Hewett “We haven’t finalized any we are exploring our options,” she This is the latest in a string of financiak challenges for Opus Corp., a national development firm with projectxs across the country. Opus East is one of five independently operatesd companies ofOpus Corp., which has struggled to refinance its projects. Opus South filed for bankruptcyy protectionin April. And in early May, a subsidiaryg of Opus West filed for bankruptcy protection to avoids a foreclosure auction ata mixed-use project near Austin, A second Opus West subsidiargy went into foreclosure.
As with Opus East, Opus West also has broughty on help to explore optionsincluding bankruptcy. As recentlt as May, however, Opus officials considered Opus East viablew because defense contractors and government agenciez drive much of the demand for new commercial developmentas inGreater Baltimore. Despite that Opus East has not signed any new tenants at its Aberdeej project sincespring 2008, when it signed CACI to a full-building It broke ground on CACI’s 60,000-square-foo t research and development building in May 2008 and completede work on the structure in December 2008. Opus East also is involveds in legal battles over two othedr projects inGreater Baltimore.
In Linthicum, Opus East is being sued in Anne Arundekl County Circuit Court by StraitSteekl Inc. over 3,000 tons of stee l the Greencastle, Pa., firm provided for Opus East’s West Quest C project. Opus East is buildingg a 160,000-square-foot office on West Nursery Road for defensed contractor NorthropGrumman Corp.
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