SPRINGFIELD, VA-Corporate Office Properties Trust is embarking on a development project that could eventually yield 800,000 square feet to 980,000 square feet of office space--all geared to meeting demand created by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure act. The REIT has announced it has under its control 15 acres in this submarket.

Construction of the first building--slated to be 240,000 square feet--for the project, called Patriot Ridge, will be in Q4 of this year. Patriot Ridge is located next to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency headquarters, which is currently under construction. A Department of Defense combat support agency, NGA will occupy a 2.4-million-square-foot facility that will be located at Fort Belvoir. Fort Belvoir, of course, is the biggest beneficiary of BRAC in the country. Projects underway at the fort number at least 20 and comprise nearly 6.2 million square feet.

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

The land is owned by the US Government and is under a long-term master lease to the joint venture through the Enhanced Use Lease program. The JV is building 4.6 million square feet of office and a retail business park. Redstone Arsenal is also major beneficiary of BRAC, gaining some 4,700 direct military and civilian government workers and embedded contractors.

Griffin alluded to the company’s development pipeline in an earnings call held in February. A number of development opportunities have become available from developers unable to secure financing for their projects, he said. "We have been working to selectively pursue those opportunities that fit our super core strategy and would now expect that several of these opportunities will be finalized in the first half of 2010. These major projects would represent both submarket and geographic expansion."

 

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