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Edward St. John

Founder & Chairman
St. John Properties

Edward St. John believes he is just a businessman and employer who has worked hard for nearly 50 years to grow his company and give back to the community.

The Baltimore developer founded MIE Properties — the forerunner of today’s St. John Properties —in 1971 and has grown his business into one of the largest privately owned commercial real estate development firms in the Mid-Atlantic region.

“Through that success, we have been able to make an economic and philanthropic impact across Maryland,” St. John says.

The Baltimore-based company serves more than 2,000 clients in Maryland, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. But its presence in Maryland has profoundly shaped communities across the state.

St. John Properties has developed or owns almost 70 properties – including more LEED-certified buildings than any other Maryland developer – and even a partial list of those properties is a virtual tour of the state:

Annapolis Junction Town Center. Baltimore Gateway. Arcadia Business Park. BWI Commerce Park. Columbia Center. International Trade Center. Reisterstown Crossing. Riverside Technology Park. Troy Hill Corporate Center.

And the company is so confident in Maryland’s commercial real estate prospects that it is investing more than $50 million across several types of property in in central Maryland.

The company has started construction on eight buildings totaling 500,000 square feet of office, retail, flex/research and development spaces in projects in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore County.

In recognition of his impact, the University of Maryland dedicated the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center — home to 12 technology-enhanced classrooms and nine teaching labs – in honor of St. John, who received his bachelor’s degree from the university in electrical engineering.

He said its opening in May 2017 serves as his greatest accomplishment that has benefited Maryland.

“The center is a national model of collaborative learning and teaching,” he says.

In 2017, he won the Economic Impact Award from the Chesapeake Gateway Chamber of Commerce.

More than $60 million has been contributed, pledged and gifted by the Edward St. John Foundation, St. John Properties and St. John personally to a variety of not-for-profit organizations.

He currently serves on the board of directors for University of Maryland Medical Center and B&O Railroad Museum, on the board of visitors for the University of Maryland Medical Center R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center and on the advisory board for the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center.

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