L-3 Takes 75,000 Square Feet at GATE

ABERDEEN, MD-L-3 Communications is taking 75,000 square feet in a building currently under construction in Aberdeen Proving Ground’s Government and Technology Enterprise, or GATE, project. It is a full building lease that will house approximately 400 employees for the company’s Command & Control Systems and Software unit. The three-story building, located at 6280 Guardian Gateway, will deliver in Fall 2010.

St. John Properties, was awarded the exclusive development rights for the private sector enclave within the Army installation this June. Last month it also acquired a 60,000-square-foot office building leased by CACI and rights to develop an adjacent 10-acre parcel to GATE.

It began development shortly after on five research and development and office buildings totaling between 150,000 and 200,000 square feet to provide more capacity in anticipation of BRAC-fueled demand. The L-3 lease is the first announced deal under St. John’s EUL. However, word on the street has it that another large lease for a building under construction has been, or is about to be, signed.

GATE’s original specs included two million square feet of office, lab, and research and development space–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.