Harford BRAC office park in jeopardy - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Rockville’s Opus East LLC, the developef of a 2 million-square-foo t business park at Aberdeen Proving Ground, has slashed its work force and stopped taking on new projects in response to its financial The company also has brought on an expertt to help it work out its debts and considee options including filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, said Winstonb Hewett, spokeswoman for parent company Opus of Minnesota. In response to thosew issues, the Army’s top brass at APG met with executivexs at Opus East to pull together a new developmenty team forits 400-acre Government and Technologyh Enterprise business park.
The being built on government land inside AberdeebnProving Ground, is the largest private development for defense contractors in Harford Aberdeen is preparing for an influx of 8,20 0 military jobs being transferred to the base by September 2011 undet a federal Base Realignment and Closure known as BRAC. Severak thousand support jobs from defense contractors also will be movingh tothe area, creating an expected demands for some 2 million squard feet of privately built space at developmentxs like Opus East’s GATE project. Just one buildingt has been constructed atthe development.
Militaryt base spokesman George Mercer said APG leaders are determined not to let the projecy fail and will do whatevetr they can to select a new developere to make sure the projecrmoves forward. As those discussions take place, Opus East’s Hewett said executives are weighing whethere the company or some of its subsidiaries will need to file forbankruptct protection. Opus East has created subsidiariew to manage each ofits projects, including APG I and APG II for the Aberdeemn project, and Hewett said it’s possible one or severaol of those entities might file for leaving Opus East intact. Harford County Economic Developmentg DirectorJames C.
Richardson said he is troubledf by the situation given the years ofplanninbg that’s gone into the base’s expansion and the economicc benefits those projects could yield. Opus like many commercial real estate developers acrossthe country, faced mounting debts from the short-terj construction loans it took out to start its Hewett said. It has been unable to refinance many ofthose debts, totaling at least $80 million, becauswe of the sour credit market. As a resultf of that slowdown, Opus East plands to lay off about 15 of its 31 employeesaJune 15. That number is down from a staft of about 100 employeeslast year, Hewetyt said.
“We haven’t finalized any plans; we are explorinfg our options,” she added. This is the latest in a stringy of financial challenges forOpus Corp., a national developmen t firm with projects across the Opus East is one of five independently operated companies of Opus which has struggled to refinance its projects. Opus Soutuh filed for bankruptcy protectionin April. And in earlt May, a subsidiary of Opus West filed for bankruptcgy protection to avoid a foreclosure auction ata mixed-use project near Texas. A second Opus West subsidiaru wentinto foreclosure. As with Opus East, Opus West also has broughy on help to explore optionsincludint bankruptcy.
As recently as May, Opus Corp. officials considered Opus East viable because defense contractors and government agenciesd drive much of the demand for new commercial developmentd inGreater Baltimore. Despited that optimism, Opus East has not signed any new tenants at its Aberdeeh project sincespring 2008, when it signe d CACI to a full-building lease. It broke grounds on CACI’s 60,000-square-foot research and development building in May 2008 and completedc work on the structure inDecembeer 2008. Opus East also is involved in legal battles over two other projects inGreater Baltimore. In Linthicum, Opus East is beingf sued in Anne Arundel Counth Circuit Court by StraitSteel Inc.
over 3,000 tons of steel the Greencastle, Pa., firm providec for Opus East’s West Quest C Opus East is buildinga 160,000-square-foor office on West Nurseruy Road for defense contractor Northrop Grummah Corp.