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

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertiexs into the fold, fearful the project would come to a halt if Opus East filed for bankruptcy protection before an arrangement could be company spokesmanGerard J. Wit said in a telephonwe interview Tuesday. “It was a real round-the-clock, week-lonb effort to get this done,” Wit “We’re going to get in and try to kick-starf this right away.” Aberdeenh is gearing up for a significant influx of military jobs undefrthe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure plan, expected to be completec by September 2011.
About 8,2000 military jobs will be transferred to the in addition to as manyas 18,00 private contracting jobs from companies that do businese with the incoming military agencies. The approvedc Opus East's selection of St. John Properties to take over the Governmentg and Technology Enterprise business park because of theBaltimore developer’ws ability to move forward with new Bob Penn, program director with the Army Corps, said in a As in taking over the project, includinbg (NYSE: OFC) and Manekin LLC. Opus East was awardedf rights to developthe government-owned land undetr a lease with the Army in November 2007 and brokse ground on its first buildingv in December of that year.
Since the company became straddled with millionsz of dollars in construction loans it has been unable to and the company has not started any new constructioh at the project for more than a The deal was inked June 19 betweebnOpus East, St. John Properties, with the backing of the St. John and the Army Corps of Engineersw issued statements Tuesday announcing the Witsaid St. John will pay Opus East an undisclosesd amount of money for its developmen t rightsat Aberdeen. In connection with the St. John has hired Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrook to overseee the GATE project as its directoe of defense andgovernment business.
“Aberdee Proving Ground is excited about moving the project forward with St. John Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrison said in a statement. “Ws consider it a positive step to have theirr experienced management team spearheadingthe build-oug of this project.” As the to help it considefr options including bankruptcy. Its parent , has also sought bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus Soutb subsidiary and for two more subsidiaries of its Opus West regionaol operation. Opus Corp. spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is stilpl evaluating its options but has not made any decisionabout bankruptcy.
The company was forced to relinquish its rightzs to the Aberdeen project because it has been unablse to finance morethan $50 million in construction loans it took out to finance its projects. Most pressing amongf those debtsis $35 million the developer spent to build a new headquarters for the Nationall Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Colleger Park, for which it has sued the federa government to collect its wages on that Hewett said. St. John plans to break ground in the next two monthse on at least three new buildings at the Harforfd Countymilitary base, with commitmentx from defense contractors for up to 300,000 square feet of research and development space, Wit said.
Wit did not disclos the names of any of those Those buildings would be in addition toa 60,000-square-foo building Opus East completed in December 2008 for defens e contractor CACI. “We view this development as the most significanr commercial real estate opportunity in the history ofour company,” St. John Presiden t Edward A. St. John said in a “This is based on the amoun t of square footage that can eventually be developed as well as the importan t work that will be completedsby end-users that occupy this space.” St.
John Propertiezs is the third-largest propertyu management firm inGreater Baltimore, with nearlu 11 million square feet of commercialp space in the region. But takin g over the Aberdeen project represents a shift for the which has sought to tap into the demandf for government contracting space upuntil now. Wit said the compangy has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease propertuy from the government such as at Opus East preliminarily received commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acre Governmenft and Technology Enterprise businessa park but did not start any additional construction.
The developer was unwilling to dividre any of its buildingsinto multi-tenante space, Wit said, preferring instead to construct buildings for a singlse tenant. That’s created a pent-uo demand for companies seekingfrom 5,000 square feet to upwarx of 20,000 square feet, Wit said. “For all the hoopls that BRAC has brought, there’s really only one building that Opus was ableto build,” Wit “If you don’t have the placw to park those people, if you don’t have the buildinge to put them in, there was goingy to be a real logistical