Real Estate Weekly: Columbia business park up for sale

Posted: 10:05 am Fri, August 27, 2010
By Daily Record Staff

Heathrow Business Center, an 81,000-square-foot office/warehouse building within the Oakland Ridge Business Center in Columbia, is for sale.

The owners have set an asking price of about $7.2 million, a decline of $2 million from 2007.

Nine tenants have leased 83 percent of the building. Features include 16-foot-high ceilings and four drive-in doors. NAI KLNB is the broker.

Mtech plans expansion
The Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility will double its space and staff, expand into Shady Grove, acquire new equipment, and create a pilot plant for biofuels in College Park through a $200,000 Shared Resource Grant from the Maryland Biotechnology Center.

The bioprocessing laboratory, part of Mtech’s Biotechnology Research and Education Program, helps companies scale up and manufacture biotechnology products and processes while providing training.

The new space in Shady Grove will be in what was part of the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology and is now part of the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research.

Real estate software firms partner
TSS Software Corp., of Annapolis, which provides software to the real estate title and settlement industry, has announced an agreement for integrating KMCIS’ CaseAware with TSS’ TitleExpress.

This will allow law firms to export information in a format compatible with TitleExpress, eliminating the need to enter the same information twice. CaseAware users may export over 170 pieces of data, such as borrower and seller information, assessed property value, and mortgages of record, to TitleExpress using the multi-order import feature.

This option is available at no charge to customers with a TSS software services subscription.

Survey: Optimism in apartment, CBD investments
A new survey shows improvement in investment opportunities in the apartment and central business district office categories.

That’s according to New York-based Real Estate Research Corp., which released second-quarter numbers this week showing each sector increasing one percentage point. Office investors are betting on commercial real estate’s future, especially in top-tier markets, said RERC President Ken Riggs.

Overall, institutional investors are being drawn to the diversification strategies and returns of commercial real estate investments in a slow economy, Riggs added.

The apartment sector’s ranking is its highest since the second quarter of 2001 – not surprising considering that apartment rentals are typically strong in a recession, especially one like this featuring a high number of foreclosures and a stubborn jobless rate.

Laurel business park sells for $3M
The Brickyard Business Park in Laurel has been acquired for $2.8 million.

The buyer, M.E. Bowen LLC, paid $127.54 per square foot for the 22,000-square-foot building at 13340 Mid Atlantic Blvd. M.E. Bowen will be leasing the majority of the building to Kent Island Mechanical Contractors.
The seller was represented by Allen Cornell, David Michael and Lance Schwarz of NAI Michael Co.

The purchaser was represented by Gary Montgomery and Herb Patterson of the HBW Group.

The Brick Yard Business Park is a 65-acre development that will feature more than 650,000 square feet of office, flex and warehouse.

Host Hotels plans $400M stock offering
Host Hotels plans to raise $400 million from the sale of shares of its common stock.

That’s according to a prospectus the Bethesda firm filed last Friday. After deducting estimated commissions and expenses, the company says it will receive net proceeds of approximately $395 million, which it intends to use to fund future potential acquisitions and for general corporate purposes.

The company’s lodging portfolio consisted of 111 luxury and upper-upscale hotels containing about 61,000 rooms, according to the supplement.

SIOR chapter to hold sales seminar
The Maryland/District of Columbia/Northern Virginia Chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) has scheduled a half-day educational seminar focusing on sales negotiating and closing skills.

The seminar will be held on Sept. 22 at Montgomery Park in Baltimore. The office park is located at 1800 Washington Blvd.

The featured speaker is Rob Nahigian, a nationally-recognized commercial real estate broker with nearly 40 years of experience who has successfully sold or leased approximately 39 million square feet of space, with a transactional value of nearly $5 billion.

Nahigian will touch on successful negotiation techniques and counter-tactics, among other topics.

Holland Construction wraps up facility expansion
Columbia-based Holland Construction recently completed work on a 50,000-square-foot expansion of a manufacturing facility in Hanover, Pa.

Ring Container Technologies, which makes plastic packaging products for customers in the snack food industry and needed to double the size of its plant thanks to surging orders.

Included in the work was the relocation of a 40-foot-tall water chiller tower from the south side to the north end of the building.

That move has been applauded by Ring Container Technologies’ neighbors, who complained about noise coming from the water chiller tower, said company CFO Wayne Drake.

This Week in Leases

• Medifast LLC, which makes dietary products, has leased 17,022 square feet of office space at 3600 Crondall Lane in Owings Mills. 

Paul F. Obrecht and Krager D. Sanders of Blue & Obrecht Realty LLC represented the landlord. Cronhill LLC. Jon DiVirgilio of Preston Partners represented the tenant.

• Advanced Vacuum Company Inc., a manufacturer for a wide range of vacuum pumps, has leased 8,500 square feet of industrial space at 433 Hahn Road in Westminster. Paul F. Obrecht of Blue & Obrecht Realty LLC represented the landlord, Hot Air LLLP, and the tenant.

• QSSI Inc., a software engineering firm, has subleased 5,841 square feet of office space at 10420 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia. Bill Blondell of Advance Realty Progressive represented the tenant in this transaction. Richard F. Blue Jr. and D. Middleton Smith of Blue & Obrecht Realty LLC represented the sub-landlord, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.