Corporate Office Properties Trust

Corporate Office Properties Trust, a Columbia company that has profited by building office parks geared to the needs of defense and intelligence agency contractors, said Friday that its chief executive will retire in March. Randall M. Griffin will be succeeded by Roger A. Waesche Jr., currently the president and chief operating officer of the real estate investment trust. The company named as its new chief operating officer Stephen E. Budorick, of real estate investment firm Callahan Capital Partners, and said he will join the company Sept.

Roman numerals often do nothing but confuse - how many people intuitively understand what Super Bowl XXXIX symbolizes? - but Corporate Office Properties Trust got it right. In naming its latest project Gateway Exchange II, the company is telling prospective tenants precisely what the structure will be - a mirror image of the office tower already on the grounds. When II is completed, the structures will stand as bookends at the entrance to Columbia Gateway, the 584-acre business park in Columbia.

The Jackson Organization Location: Montpelier Research Park, just off the intersection of U.S 29 and Johns Hopkins Road in Laurel. Developer: Manekin, LLC Landlord: MOR Montpelier III, a joint venture between Manekin and Corporate Office Properties Trust. Description: Build-to-suit for the Jackson Organization, a survey research consulting firm. It will be a one-story brick building with 19,170 square feet. Among its features will be three conference rooms, a training room and larger work and storage areas.

Columbia-based Corporate Office Properties Trust, an office developer that specializes in government and defense tenants, said Thursday that President Roger A. Waesche Jr. would become chief executive officer at the end of the month. The transition plan was previously announced. Waesche, who will replace Randall M. Griffin, who is retiring, is a former chief financial officer and chief operating officer with the company. He has been president since September 2010. COPT, which develops, manages and leases suburban office complexes, has a portfolio of 238 properties.

Manekin LLC wins awards for pair of projects Manekin LLC has received an Award of Excellence at the 2004 NAIOP Awards, sponsored by the Maryland Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. The company won an award for Best Flex Project for Columbia Gateway 67, a two-building, 108,850-square-foot project combining office and storage space that Manekin built along Robert Fulton Drive in Columbia. The project was purchased recently by Corporate Office Properties Trust.

Architecture firm promotes Sipes to associate Timothy J. Sipes of Owings Mills has been promoted to associate at George Vaeth Associates Inc. of Columbia, an architectural and interior design firm. A 16-year employee and registered architect, Sipes provides architectural design services for clients such as Corporate Office Properties Trust, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks and Howard County Department of Public Works. Sipes is project architect for the renovation of four fire stations in Howard County.

Corporate Office Properties Trust will move its corporate headquarters from suburban Philadelphia to Columbia to put it closer to the company's high concentration of office buildings in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. The Columbia facility, at 8815 Centre Park Drive, has about 60 employees. It houses Corporate Realty Management, a property management affiliate, and Corporate Development Services, the company's development and construction management company. Key departments located there include legal, finance and accounting, human resources, investor relations, marketing and asset management.

Making room for a wave of new hires, the National Security Agency has leased a former Sony computer chip plant in San Antonio from a Maryland real estate company, the agency said yesterday. Some Maryland employees will be affected by the expansion in Texas, the NSA said, because a core group of experienced analysts at the agency's Fort Meade headquarters will be transferred to train the new ones in San Antonio. Employees will not be moved over their objections or laid off as a result, officials says.

Acquisitions Structural Preservations Systems, a Baltimore-based specialty contracting company, acquired Delta Pacific Builders Inc.. a California concrete restoration and coating firm. Awards Visicu Inc., which sells systems to remotely monitor critical care units, was named Innovator of the Year by the steering committee of the Innovation 2007 conference for chief executive officers of health care-related industry segments. Corporate Office Properties Trust received the CEL & Associates ranking of Best In the Industry for commitment to quality service for tenants.