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-footy business park at Aberdeen Proving has slashed its work force and stopped taking on new projectds in response to itsfinancial problems. The company also has broughy on an expert to help it work out its debts and conside r options including filing for Chapter11 bankruptcy, said Winston spokeswoman for parent company Opus of Minnesota. In response to those the Army’s top brass at APG met with executivese at Opus East to pull together a new developmentf team forits 400-acre Government and Technology Enterprisew business park.
The being built on governmenf land inside AberdeenProving Ground, is the largest privatew development for defense contractors in Harford Aberdeen is preparing for an influ of 8,200 military jobs being transferred to the base by Septembert 2011 under a federal Base Realignmeng and Closure plan, knownb as BRAC. Several thousand suppor t jobs from defense contractors also will be movinvg tothe area, creatinvg an expected demand for some 2 million squar feet of privately built space at developments like Opus East’xs GATE project.
Just one building has been constructed at the Military base spokesman George Mercer said APG leaderws are determined not to let the projecr fail and will do whatever they can to selecy a new developer to make sure the project moves As those discussionstake place, Opus East’s Hewett said executiveas are weighing whether the company or some of its subsidiaries will need to file for bankruptcyg protection. Opus East has created subsidiaries to manage each of its including APG I and APG II for the Aberdeen project, and Hewett said it’s possible one or severapl of those entities might file for leaving Opus East Harford County Economic Development Directo James C.
Richardson said he is troubled by the situatiojn given the years ofplanninb that’s gone into the base’s expansioh and the economic benefitse those projects could yield. Opus like many commercial real estatr developers acrossthe country, faceas mounting debts from the short-term construction loans it took out to startf its projects, Hewett said. It has been unable to refinancew many ofthose debts, totaling at least $80 because of the sour credit As a result of that Opus East plans to lay off about 15 of its 31 employeews June 15.
That number is down from a staff of about 100 employeeslast year, Hewett “We haven’t finalized any plans; we are exploringy our options,” she added. This is the latest in a striny of financial challenges forOpus Corp., a national development firm with projectw across the country. Opus East is one of five independentlu operated companies of Opus which has struggled to refinancerits projects. Opus South filed for bankruptcy protectiojin April. And in early May, a subsidiaru of Opus West filed for bankruptcy protection to avoid a foreclosure auction ata mixed-uswe project near Austin, Texas. A second Opus West subsidiaruy wentinto foreclosure.
As with Opus Opus West also has brought on help to explorde optionsincluding bankruptcy. As recentlh as May, however, Opus Corp. officials considere Opus East viable because defense contractors and government agencies drivde much of the demand for new commercial developments in Greater Despitethat optimism, Opus East has not signed any new tenantx at its Aberdeen project since spring 2008, when it signed CACI to a full-buildin g lease. It broke ground on CACI’s 60,000-square-foot research and development building in May 2008 and completed work on the structured inDecember 2008. Opus East also is involveed in legal battles over two otheer projects inGreater Baltimore.
In Opus East is beingb sued in Anne Arundel Countg Circuit Court by StraitSteel Inc. over 3,000 tons of steelo the Greencastle, Pa., firm provided for Opus East’xs West Quest C Opus East is buildinga 160,000-square-foot office on West Nurseru Road for defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp.