The financially troubled developer of a huge business park being built at Aberdeen Proving Ground to serve base restructuring has backed out of the project and handed it off to Baltimore-based St. John Properties.
Under plans approved by the Army, Rockville-based Opus East assigned development rights to St. John, which announced the agreement Tuesday and said it plans to start work on three or four research and office buildings.
The 400-acre project, Government and Technology Enterprise, or GATE, is being developed as a 2 million- to 3 million-square-foot research and development park in partnership with the Army to handle growth from BRAC - military base restructuring. Aberdeen is expected to become a key business research center for the Army, with some 10,000 new government and private sector jobs.
Opus East, which the Army selected in 2004 to build and manage the GATE project, said it was forced to seek a new developer because of lack of payment on a separate project under construction for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at a University of Maryland, College Park research park. Opus East filed a federal lawsuit May 12 accusing the Government Services Administration of failing to make payments for work on the partially constructed building, the spokeswoman, Winston Hewett, said Tuesday.
A GSA spokeswoman said the agency does not comment on pending lawsuits.
"That has compounded the financial stress and liquidity of Opus East," Hewett said. "When combined with the capital markets and lack of refinancing on projects, it has forced Opus East to consider Chapter 11" bankruptcy and to seek a new developer for the GATE project.
Late last year, Opus East completed its first building at Aberdeen, which is fully leased to CACI International Inc., a technical consultant and federal contractor headquartered in Arlington, Va. The Army's goal is to develop the 400 acres over about 20 years to lease to tenants such as defense contractors and government agencies compatible with the base's operations, said George Mercer, an Aberdeen spokesman. GATE is expected to house office, lab and research and development space.
"It is an important part of our future," Mercer said. "Our plan was always to move forward."
St. John Properties said it is assuming construction, marketing and leasing of the complex. The Army approved the assignment of development rights June 19.
Edward A. St. John, president of St. John Properties, said the GATE development is the most significant commercial real estate opportunity in the company's history, based on the amount of square footage that can eventually be built. St. John Properties, founded in 1971 as MIE Properties, owns and has developed more than 14 million square feet of research and development, warehouse, office and retail space in Maryland and four other states.
The company said it will start work at GATE on three or four buildings totaling between 150,000 and 200,000 square feet.
