Harford BRAC office park in jeopardy - Triangle Business Journal:

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Rockville’s Opus East LLC, the developer of a 2 million-square-foo business park at Aberdeen Proving Ground, has slashed its work force and stoppefd taking on new projects in response to itsfinanciakl problems. The company also has brought on an experf to help it work out its debtas and consider options includinbg filing for Chapter 11 saidWinston Hewett, spokeswoman for parenf company Opus Corp. of In response to those issues, the Army’s top brass at APG met with executivesx at Opus East to pull togetherr a new development team forits 400-acre Governmenft and Technology Enterprise business park.
The being built on government land inside AberdeenProving Ground, is the largesrt private development for defense contractors in Harford Aberdeen is preparing for an influx of 8,200 military jobs being transferred to the base by Septembefr 2011 under a federal Base Realignment and Closurew plan, known as BRAC. Several thousand suppory jobs from defense contractors also will be movin tothe area, creating an expected demand for some 2 millioj square feet of privately built space at developmentsa like Opus East’s GATE project.
Just one buildin g has been constructed at the Military base spokesman George Mercer said APG leaderz are determined not to let the projectg fail and will do whatevere they can to select a new developer to make sure the projectrmoves forward. As those discussions take place, Opus East’s Hewettg said executives are weighingt whether the company or some of its subsidiaries will need to file forbankruptcty protection.
Opus East has created subsidiaries to manages each ofits projects, including APG I and APG II for the Aberdeen project, and Hewett said it’s possible one or several of thosd entities might file for bankruptcy, leaving Opus East Harford County Economic Development Director Jamew C. Richardson said he is troubled by the situationn given the years ofplanning that’s gone into the base’es expansion and the economic benefits thosr projects could yield. Opus East, like many commercialo real estate developers across the faces mounting debts fromthe short-term constructionn loans it took out to start its Hewett said.
It has been unable to refinance many ofthoss debts, totaling at least $80 because of the sour credit market. As a resulgt of that slowdown, Opus East plans to lay off about 15 of its 31 employeedsJune 15. That number is down from a staffr of about 100 employeeslast year, Hewett said. “Wse haven’t finalized any plans; we are exploring our she added. This is the latest in a string of financiaol challenges forOpus Corp., a national developmenyt firm with projects across the country. Opus East is one of five independentlty operated companies ofOpus Corp., which has struggled to refinanc e its projects. Opus South filed for bankruptcy protectionbin April.
And in early May, a subsidiary of Opus West filed for bankruptcy protection to avoid a foreclosured auction ata mixed-use project near Austin, A second Opus West subsidiary went into As with Opus East, Opus West also has brought on help to explore optionsw including bankruptcy. As recentlty as May, however, Opus Corp. officials consideredr Opus East viable because defense contractors and governmengt agencies drive much of the demand for new commercial developmentw inGreater Baltimore. Despite that optimism, Opus East has not signed any new tenants at its Aberdeen projec t sincespring 2008, when it signed CACI to a full-buildinbg lease.
It broke ground on CACI’es 60,000-square-foot research and development building in May 2008 and completedx work on the structure inDecember 2008. Opus East also is involvec in legal battles over two other projectsa inGreater Baltimore. In Linthicum, Opus East is beingg sued in Anne Arundel County Circuig Court by StraitSteel Inc. over 3,00o tons of steel the Greencastle, Pa., firm providedd for Opus East’s West Quest C project. Opus East is buildin a 160,000-square-foot office on West Nursery Road for defenss contractor NorthropGrumman Corp.