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Rockville’s Opus East LLC, the developer of a 2 million-square-footg business park at Aberdeen Proving has slashed its work force and stoppedr taking on new projects in response to its financial The company also has broughtr on an expert to help it work out its debtx and consider options including filing for Chapteer11 bankruptcy, said Winston Hewett, spokeswoma for parent company Opus of Minnesota. In response to thosre issues, the Army’s top brass at APG met with executives at Opus East to pull togetherf a new development team forits 400-acred Government and Technology Enterprise busines park.
The project, beiny built on government land inside AberdeenProvingb Ground, is the largesy private development for defense contractors in Harford Aberdeen is preparing for an influx of 8,209 military jobs being transferred to the base by September 2011 undert a federal Base Realignment and Closure known as BRAC. Severao thousand support jobs from defense contractors also will be moving to the creating an expected demand for some 2 millionm square feet of privately built space at developments likeOpus East’se GATE project. Just one building has been constructec atthe development.
Military base spokesmanh George Mercer said APG leaderx are determined not to let the project fail and will do whatever they can to selecy a new developer to make sure the projec tmoves forward. As those discussionsa take place, Opus East’s Hewett said executives are weighing whether the companyy or some of its subsidiaries will need to file forbankruptcgy protection. Opus East has created subsidiaries to manage each of its including APG I and APG II for the Aberdeen and Hewettsaid it’s possible one or severa l of those entities might file for bankruptcy, leaving Opus East Harford County Economic Development Director Jameas C.
Richardson said he is troubledx by the situation given the years ofplanning that’d gone into the base’s expansionm and the economic benefitsz those projects could yield. Opus like many commercial real estatwe developers acrossthe country, faces mounting debtxs from the short-term construction loans it took out to start its projects, Hewett said. It has been unablre to refinance many of those totaling atleast $80 because of the sour credit market. As a result of that Opus East plans to lay off aboutf 15 of its 31 employeesJune 15. That numbe is down from a staff of abouft 100 employeeslast year, Hewett said.
“We haven’gt finalized any plans; we are exploring our options,” she This is the latest in a stringb of financial challenges forOpus Corp., a nationalk development firm with projects across the Opus East is one of five independently operated companiews of Opus Corp., which has struggled to refinance its Opus South filed for bankruptcy protection in And in early May, a subsidiaryg of Opus West filed for bankruptc y protection to avoid a foreclosure auction at a mixed-usee project near Austin, Texas. A seconds Opus West subsidiary went into As with Opus Opus West also has brought on help to explores optionsincluding bankruptcy. As recently as May, however, Opus Corp.
officiale considered Opus East viable because defens contractors and government agencies drive much of the demancd for new commercial developments in Greater Despitethat optimism, Opus East has not signed any new tenant at its Aberdeen project since spring 2008, when it signed CACI to a full-buildinv lease. It broke ground on CACI’s 60,000-square-foot research and development buildingv in May 2008 and completed work on the structure inDecembe 2008. Opus East also is involved in legal battlez over two other projects inGreaterf Baltimore. In Linthicum, Opus East is beingh sued in Anne Arundelp County Circuit Court by StraitSteel Inc. over 3,000 tons of stee l the Greencastle, Pa.
, firm provided for Opus East’s West Questr C project. Opus East is building a 160,000-square-fooft office on West Nursery Road for defense contractoe NorthropGrumman Corp.
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