AOL moving Baltimore offices to Brewers Hill

AOL and Ad.com are moving their offices from Tide Point to Brewers Hill.

David Knipp, vice president of Obrecht Commercial Real Estate, confirmed the company would be leasing about 45,000 square feet in the National East building and is expected to move into the space by spring of 2015.

“I think they’re going to be a great fit,” Knipp said. “It’s sort of an extension of Tide Point. Tide Point is obviously similar to what we have here, exposed brick and so forth. Canton’s become kind of this young dynamic area, and I think their employees — I think they’ll fit in well.”

He said his company has been negotiating a lease with AOL and Ad.com for a “few months” and that office space is now more than 97 percent occupied.

“We’ve had a good run of luck,” Knipp said.

Brewers Hill is a mixed-use development on 27 acres of land and is the former home of National and Gunther breweries. There are three apartment buildings with more than 800 units and about 40,000 square feet of retail in the complex. The development’s website touts its Class A office space, but Knipp stopped short of describing that way.

“It’s a unique animal that we have over here. Because it’s all these old retrofitted buildings,” Knipp said. “So if you define Class A as lobby attendants, and granite lobbies and so forth, no we’re not that, but we’re just cool historic redevelopment.”

The development’s most iconic feature is the lighted Natty Boh logo that looms over the East Baltimore skyline at night.

Tide Point is owned by Under Armour and also serves as that company’s headquarters. Under Armour bought Locust Point property for $60.5 million in 2011. Under Armour has been looking for more space in the area because of the company’s rapid growth.

The building was formerly home to a Proctor & Gamble manufacturing plant. Developer C. William “Bill” Struever rehabbed the complex in 2001 and envisioned it as a home for Baltimore’s high-tech companies.

AOL and Under Armour did not respond for requests for comment on this story.