St. John Properties takes over Opus East business park at Aberdeen Proving Ground - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:

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U.S. Army officials worked feverishly over the past week topull St. John Propertie into the fold, fearful the projec t would come to a halt if Opus East filedc for bankruptcy protection before an arrangementg couldbe struck, company spokesman Gerard J. Wit said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It was a real week-long effort to get this Wit said. “We’re goinf to get in and try to kick-start this right away.” Aberdeejn is gearing up for a significant influx of militaru jobs underthe Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure expected to be completed by September 2011.
About 8,20p0 military jobs will be transferredc tothe base, in addition to as many as 18,00o private contracting jobs from companies that do business with the incoming military agencies. The approved Opus East's selection of St. John Propertiea to take over the Government and Technologt Enterprise business park because of theBaltimores developer’s ability to move forwardr with new construction, Bob program director with the Army Corps, said in a statement. As in takingy over the project, including (NYSE: OFC) and Manekibn LLC.
Opus East was awarderd rights to developthe government-owned land under a lease with the Army in November 2007 and broker ground on its first building in Decembetr of that year. Since then, the company became straddlefd with millions of dollars in construction loan s it has been unableto refinance, and the companty has not started any new construction at the project for more than a The deal was inked June 19 between Opus East, St. John with the backing of the St. John and the Army Corpes of Engineers issued statements Tuesday announcinbgthe deal. Wit said St. John will pay Opus East an undiscloseds amount of money for its development rights at In connection withthe deal, St.
John has hirecd Opus East project manager Matthew Holbrook to oversee the GATE projectt as its director of defense andgovernment “Aberdeen Proving Ground is excited abougt moving the project forward with St. John Tim McNamara, APG deputy garrison said in a “We consider it a positives step to have their experienced management team spearheadingthe build-ouft of this project.” As the to help it consider optionsw including bankruptcy. Its parent company, , has also soughtg bankruptcy protectionfor it’s Opus South subsidiary and for two more subsidiariesa of its Opus West regional Opus Corp.
spokeswoman Winston Hewett said Opus East is still evaluating its optionsx but has not made any decisionasabout bankruptcy. The company was forced to relinquish its rights to the Aberdeen project because it has been unable to finance morethan $50 millionm in construction loans it took out to finance its projects. Most pressingg among those debtsis $35 millionn the developer spent to build a new headquarters for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Collegwe Park, for which it has sued the federal governmenty to collect its wagez on that project, Hewett said. St.
John planxs to break ground in the next two monthx on at least three new buildings at the Harforc Countymilitary base, with commitments from defense contractore for up to 300,000 squarw feet of office, research and developmenf space, Wit said. Wit did not disclose the namese of any ofthose tenants. Those buildings would be in additiobn toa 60,000-square-foot building Opus East completeds in December 2008 for defense contractor “We view this development as the most significant commercial real estatwe opportunity in the history of our company,” St. John Presiden t Edward A. St. John said in a statement.
“Thisd is based on the amount of square footage that can eventuallyt be developed as well as the importang work that will be completed by end-users that occupy this space.” St. John Propertie s is the third-largest propert y management firm inGreate Baltimore, with nearly 11 million square feet of commercial space in the region. But takinb over the Aberdeen project represents a shift for the which has sought to tap into the demand for governmengt contracting space upuntil now. Wit said the compang has also sought in the past to buy land for its own rather than to lease property from the governmenf such asat Aberdeen.
Opus East preliminarily receives commitments from firms seeking space atits 413-acre Government and Technology Enterprise business park but did not starg any additional construction. The developer was unwillingv to divide any of its buildingsinto multi-tenanter space, Wit said, preferring instead to construct buildings for a single tenant. That’s createc a pent-up demand for companies seekingfrom 5,000 squares feet to upward of 20,000 square feet, Wit “For all the hoopla that BRAC has brought, there’s reallg only one building that Opus was able to Wit said.
“If you don’t have the placd to park those people, if you don’t have the buildings to put them in, therde was going to be a reallogistical