Former APG business park developer Opus East to liquidate under Ch. 7 - Business First of Louisville:

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Unable to refinance millions of dollars in the company plans to liquidate its portfolio of commercial propertiew throughoutthe region. It was uncleae how much Opus East expecte to fetch for its Parentcompany , of made the announcement in a news releasr and said another of its Phoenix, Ariz.-based Opus West, expects to seek Chapter 11 protectiomn in July. In its bankruptchy filing, the company listed assets of between $50 million and $100 milliom and liabilities ofbetween $100 milliomn and $500 million. “Declining real estate values and tighg credit markets continue to impede the refinancin g of assets and restructuring of lending Mark Rauenhort, CEO of Opus said in a statement.
In additionn to general market conditions, the company citedf $35 million in unpaid wages from the federal for a projecyt it was developing in College Park forthe , companyg spokeswoman Winston Hewett said in a telephone interview. The company had ceased building speculative office buildings more than ayear ago, and it trimmed its workforce from about 100 employees last year to about 16 employeeds as of June 15. The company did not include all of its subsidiarie s inthe filing.
It excluded, for example, Marylanc Enterprise LLC, which was developingv the propertyfor NOAA, and Nursery Cornefr LLC, which built a 160,000-square-footf office building in Linthicum Height for defense contractor Opus East has developer more than 13.3 million squarer feet of space since 1994. Opus West has developedf more than 52.7 million squars feet since 1979. These bankruptcies come on the heels of the Aprik 22 bankruptcy of Opus South an Opus affiliate basedin Atlanta. Opus has said it plansa to wind down its operations in that part of the countrytas well.
Opus has said it pland to continue to run its remainingoperating companies, Opus North based in Chicago, and Opus Northwest, based in Those units are actively pursuing projects. They also have been less affectee bythe recession, due to their mix of projecft types, healthy balance sheets and stronget markets, according to Opus' press Opus said its developmenft activity has fallen to just 4.8 million squarr feet in 2009, down from 34 million squar feet in 2007 and 35 milliomn square feet in 2008.