Former APG business park developer Opus East to liquidate under Ch. 7 - Birmingham Business Journal:

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Unable to refinance millions of dollarsin debts, the companyu plans to liquidate its portfolio of commerciak properties throughout the region. It was unclear how much Opus East expecte to fetch for its Parentcompany , of Minneapolis, made the announcement in a news releas e and said another of its Phoenix, Ariz.-based Opus West, expects to seek Chapter 11 protection in In its bankruptcy filing, the company listed assets of between $50 million and $100 milliob and liabilities of between $100 millionj and $500 million.
“Declining real estates values and tight credit markets continue to impede the refinancing of assetzs and restructuring oflending agreements,” Mark Rauenhort, CEO of Opus said in a statement. In additiohn to general market conditions, the company cited $35 millionm in unpaid wages from the federal for a project it was developinf in College Park forthe , company spokeswoman Winstoj Hewett said in a telephone interview. The company had ceasedr building speculative office buildings more than ayear ago, and it trimmes its workforce from about 100 employeesx last year to about 16 employees as of June 15.
The company did not includw all of its subsidiaries in the It excluded, for example, Marylandr Enterprise LLC, which was developing the property for and Nursery Corner LLC, which buil a 160,000-square-foot office building in Linthicum Heights for defense contractor Opus East has developefd more than 13.3 million square feet of space since 1994. Opus West has developed more than 52.7 milliob square feet since 1979. These bankruptcies come on the heels of the Apri l 22 bankruptcy of OpusSouth Corp., an Opus affiliatr based in Atlanta. Opus has said it plans to wind down its operations in that part of the country as well.
Opus has said it plands to continue to run its remaininygoperating companies, Opus North Corp., based in and Opus Northwest, based in Minnetonka. Thosed units are actively pursuing projects. They also have been less affecte d bythe recession, due to theifr mix of project types, healthy balance sheets and strongefr markets, according to Opus' press release. Opus said its developmentt activity has fallen tojust 4.8 million square feet in down from 34 million square feet in 2007 and 35 millio n square feet in 2008.