SPRINGFIELD, VA-Corporate Office Properties Trust is embarkingon a development project that could eventually yield 800,000 squarefeet to 980,000 square feet of office space--all geared to meetingdemand created by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure act. TheREIT has announced it has under its control 15 acres in thissubmarket.

Construction of the first building--slated to be 240,000 squarefeet--for the project, called Patriot Ridge, will be in Q4 of thisyear. Patriot Ridge is located next to the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency headquarters, which is currently underconstruction. A Department of Defense combat support agency, NGAwill occupy a 2.4-million-square-foot facility that will be locatedat Fort Belvoir. Fort Belvoir, of course, is the biggestbeneficiary of BRAC in the country. Projects underway at the fortnumber at least 20 and comprise nearly 6.2 million square feet.

Patriot Ridge will support the missions relocating to FortBelvoir as a result of BRAC, says Randall M. Griffin, CEO of COPT.This is not the first project COPT has underway with an eye toservicing shifts created by BRAC. In March, the REIT announced itwas forming a joint venture with Jim Wilson & Associates todevelop Redstone Gateway, a 468-acre land parcel adjacent toRedstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL.