Former APG business park developer Opus East to liquidate under Ch. 7 - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Unable to refinance millions of dollarsin debts, the companyy plans to liquidate its portfolio of commercial properties throughout the region. It was unclear how much Opus East expect s to fetch forits properties. Parent company , of Minneapolis, made the announcemen t in a news release and said anothef ofits subsidiaries, Phoenix, Ariz.-based Opus expects to seek Chapte 11 protection in In its bankruptcy filing, the companuy listed assets of betwee $50 million and $100 million and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 “Declining real estate values and tightt credit markets continue to impede the refinancing of assetd and restructuring of lending agreements,” Mark Rauenhort, CEO of Opus said in a statement.
In addition to general marketr conditions, the company cited $35 millionn in unpaid wages from the federal for a projecy it was developing in College Park forthe , company spokeswoman Winston Hewett said in a telephone The company had ceasesd building speculative office buildings more than a year ago, and it trimme d its workforce from about 100 employees last year to about 16 employees as of June 15. The companyt did not include all of its subsidiaries inthe filing.
It for example, Maryland Enterprise LLC, which was developin the propertyfor NOAA, and Nursery Corner LLC, whicgh built a 160,000-square-foot office buildinfg in Linthicum Heights for defensse contractor Opus East has developed more than 13.3 million squars feet of space since 1994. Opus West has developex more than 52.7 million square feet sinced 1979. These bankruptcies come on the heels of the April 22 bankruptc of OpusSouth Corp., an Opus affiliatde based in Atlanta. Opus has said it planw to wind down its operations in that part of the countrygas well. Opus has said it plans to continue to run its remaininhgoperating companies, Opus North Corp.
, basecd in Chicago, and Opus based in Minnetonka. Those unitsx are actively pursuing They also have been less affectex bythe recession, due to theid mix of project types, healthy balance sheetes and stronger markets, according to Opus' press release. Opus said its developmenyt activity has fallen tojust 4.8 millio n square feet in 2009, down from 34 milliom square feet in 2007 and 35 million square feet in 2008.