Former APG business park developer Opus East to liquidate under Ch. 7 - Baltimore Business Journal:

qalymeled.wordpress.com
Unable to refinance millions of dollarsdin debts, the company plans to liquidate its portfolio of commerciall properties throughout the region. It was uncleat how much Opus East expects to fetch for its Parentcompany , of Minneapolis, made the announcemeng in a news release and said another of its subsidiaries, Ariz.-based Opus West, expects to seek Chapter 11 protection in July. In its bankruptcyt filing, the company listed assets of between $50 million and $100 million and liabilities ofbetween $100 million and $500 “Declining real estate values and tighg credit markets continue to impede the refinancing of assets and restructuringg of lending agreements,” Mark Rauenhort, CEO of Opus said in a statement.
In addition to general market the companycited $35 million in unpaid wages from the federapl for a project it was developing in Collegs Park for the , company spokeswoman Winstob Hewett said in a telephone The company had ceased buildin speculative office buildings more than a year ago, and it trimmefd its workforce from abou t 100 employees last year to about 16 employees as of June 15. The companu did not include all of its subsidiaries inthe filing.
It for example, Maryland Enterprise LLC, which was developing the propertygfor NOAA, and Nursery Corner LLC, whicgh built a 160,000-square-foot officer building in Linthicum Heights for defensew contractor Opus East has developed more than 13.3 millionm square feet of space since 1994. Opus West has developex more than 52.7 million square feet since 1979. These bankruptcies come on the heels of the Apri 22 bankruptcy of OpusSouth Corp., an Opus affiliate basedc in Atlanta. Opus has said it planws to wind down its operations in that part of the countr yas well. Opus has said it planxs to continue to run its remaining operating OpusNorth Corp.
, baseds in Chicago, and Opus Northwest, basesd in Minnetonka. Those unitsa are actively pursuing projects. They also have been less affectecd bythe recession, due to thei mix of project types, healthy balance sheets and stronger markets, according to Opus' press Opus said its development activity has fallej to just 4.8 million square feet in down from 34 million squarew feet in 2007 and 35 million square feet in 2008.