St. John Properties was awarded the exclusive development rights for the private sector enclave within the Army installation this June as well as the rights to develop an adjacent 10-acre parcel to GATE. St. John began development on five research and development and office buildings totaling between 150,000 square feet and 200,000 square feet to provide more capacity in anticipation of BRAC-fueled demand. The L-3 lease was the first announced deal under St. John's EUL; the Raytheon transaction had been rumored to follow shortly after that.

Raytheon is consolidating nearly 300 workers presently located in offices in Towson, MD and Fort Monmouth, NJ, to 6260 Guardian Gateway, a 75,000-square-foot, three-story building expected to be delivered in fall 2010.

GATE can accommodate a two-million-square-foot office, lab, and research and development space build out--all aimed at firms, defense contractors, and other Army and Department of Defense units active at Aberdeen. The projects are expected to add 6,000 new government jobs to the base, some 5,000 of which are being relocated from New Jersey due to the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005. St. John did not return a call to GlobeSt.com in time for publication.