COPT to buy old Orbital campus - Baltimore Business Journal:

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Century Technology Park in Germantown is under contracft to COPT for anundisclosed sum. The 354,000-square-foot groupinf of seven buildings, the former Orbitap Sciences campus, now stands vacant. The purchase is expecterd to closein September. "We view COPT as a highlty credible buyer and they are intheir due-diligencew phase," says Andy executive vice president of MGP Real which owns Century Technology Park. Representatives from COPT could not be reacheefor comment. In addition to the seven buildings, the campus has the potentiapl foranother 156,000 square feet in threes buildings.
Sources say COPT has a great opportunithy to reposition and rebrandthe flex, office and industrialo buildings and attract tenants as the market beginsx a rebound. Germantown, part of the Gaithersburg doesn't have the highes t vacancy rates insuburbam Maryland. But with a 17 percent vacancy rate and droppinghrental rates, the market may take a while to Germantown/Gaithersburg submarket rental rates have dropped from $23 per squarew foot in the first quarter of the year to $22 per squarr foot in the second quarter, accordingg to a recent report by Newmark ( ).
Absorptio n improved, however, moving from negative 88,00 0 square feet to a positivde 37,600 square feet in the second In 2001, Orbital Sciences sold its complecx for $22 million to MGP Real Estate. The suburbanb Maryland acquisition is a brealk from a string of Northern Virginia buys COPT has made this part of an overall strategy to becomwe a major owner inthe D.C. market. This the Columbia-based company announcefd that it bought five buildings in the Dulles Technology and in Westfields Corporate one investmentadded 433,81e square feet to its portfolio.
It also bought 404,00p0 square feet in Herndon andtwo 145,000-square-fooy offices in the Route 28 COPT bought its first property in Northern Virginia in 2001 and sincde has grown its Northern Virginiza portfolio to about 1.6 million square feet. In all, the company owns 118 offices totaling 9.9 million squarw feet from New Jerseu toNorthern Virginia.