Baltimore

Shovels broke ground on Monday, February 11, as work started on The Metropolitan Downtown Columbia, a $100 million mixed-use project in downtown Columbia’s Warfield neighborhood. Developers and county officials attended the ceremony.

Connecticut-based Greenfield Partners LLC has acquired Tower Point at the Highlands, a corporate campus, situated on 60-acres in Sparks, Maryland. The seller was Equus Capital Partners Ltd. The property sold for $23.7 million or $124 per square foot..

Tower Point is a 162,646-square-foot campus about 20 miles north of Baltimore. It includes two Class A office buildings located at 920 and 930 Ridgebrook Road. 920 Ridgebrook Road is the largest of the two buildings. It has three stories and 94,071 square feet of space. 930 Ridgebrook Road is a three-story building with 72,406 square feet of space. According to the campus’ website, a third three-story, 81,000 square foot Class A office building, 934 Ridgebrook Road, is a planned adjacent to 920 Ridgebrook Road. It is fully approved for development and available for lease and build-to-suit and expansion opportunities.

The Jefferson Apartment Group broke ground last week on the Jefferson Square at Washington Hill, a mixed-use development that includes luxury residences and retail space. It is the company’s first major residential project in the Baltimore region and the second in the area.

Jefferson Square at Washington Hill is located just outside the gates of the Johns Hopkins medical campus, between N. Wolfe Street and N. Washington Street on E. Fayette Street. The five story mixed-use development will bring 304 residential units to the area, as well as 21,000 square feet of retail. The project will also include two private courtyards, a 405-space parking structure constructed to connect each level of the building to parking and several green building features.

Baltimore’s industrial market has started 2013 strong, with three proprieties recently sold for a total of around $35 million. According to a report released on January 9 by CBRE for last year’s fourth quarter, industrial sales in the Baltimore market in 2012 are on a path to exceed sales from the previous year by 20 percent.

1021 Swan Creek Drive, a Class A industrial property leased by Nissan North America, has been sold for $13.5 million. Hartz Mountain Industries has purchased the property in Baltimore’s Curtis Bay neighborhood from Swan Creek 5R LLC, a subsidiary of the Belt’s Corp. CBRE arranged the sale.

Rockville, MD-based BECO Management, Inc. has announced on January 2 the acquisition of Owings Mills Corporate Center I & II, two properties in Owings Mills, MD that total more than 330,000 square feet of office space. The commercial real estate management company plans to invest significant capital in infrastructure, cosmetic and amenity improvements and has unveiled its 100-day action plan on January 8, 2013. Owings Mills Corporate Center I was built in 1987 while Owings Mills Corporate Center II was built a year later. The campus is home to a variety of corporate tenants such as Aon Corporation, BB&T, the Law Offices of Sheila Murthy, and CareFirst of Maryland. It is adjacent to the Owings Mills Mall and within walking distance of the Owings Mills Metro Station. I-95, I-695 and I-795 are also close by and downtown Baltimore is just 25 minutes away.

Picerne Military Housing, a division of the Corvias Group, a privately-owned real estate firm, has announced on December 18 it has closed on a $72 million public-private partnership deal with the U.S. Army to build more than 1,400 garden-style apartments for junior enlisted single service members at Fort Meade, in Maryland. According to Picerne, this is the U.S. Army’s first-ever privately-developed, on-post apartment community for unaccompanied junior enlisted soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen.

Modus Hotels, a full service hotel development and management company from Washington, D.C., has purchased Baltimore’s Brookshire Suites last week. It is Modus’ first hotel in downtown Baltimore and its third hotel acquisition of 2012.The Brookshire Suites is located immediately adjacent to Baltimore’s famous Inner Harbor

St. John Properties, Inc. has started work on BWI Technology Park II, a 44-acre mixed-use business community located near BWI Airport in Anne Arundel County. This is St. John’s seventh business community developed in Anne Arundel County. The initial R&D/flex building is the company’s 100th commercial office or retail project in this jurisdiction.

St. John Properties, Inc. started construction at the end of September on a 42,620 square foot single-story building in its Maple Lawn Corporate Center park in Maple Lawn, a 600-acre mixed-use business community located in Howard County. This is the company’s final R&D/flex office product constructed in the Maple Lawn Corporate Center.