Economic Development News

Master Planned Business Park Coming to Eldersburg

St. John Properties, Inc. will develop a 215,000 square foot mixed-use business community called Liberty Exchange on a 40-acre tract of land near the intersection of MD Route 32 and 26 (Liberty Road), currently the Freedom Golf Center. The first building is expected to be delivered in fall 2010.

Upon completion, Liberty Exchange will be a corporate campus comprised of ten buildings, offering approximately 165,000 square feet of office and research and development/flex space, as well as retail space that will primarily service the tenants and employees of the business community. Intended uses for the retail portion includes a convenience store and bank on separate pad sites, as well as in-line retail offering a variety of products and services. The purpose of this internal retail space will be to alleviate traffic along Liberty Road, as employees will stay within the park to eat and utilize business amenities and services.

St. John Properties has designed the office and research and development/flex space components of Liberty Exchange to satisfy the requirements for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Groundbreaking for the project is expected to occur early in 2010, and the first building is expected to be delivered in fall 2010. This represents the first venture into the Carroll County marketplace for St. John Properties, which owns more than 14 million square feet of space around the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.

Liberty Exchange is just west of Eldersburg, named as the 47th "Best Place to Live" in the country by Money Magazine in 2009, is close to several interstates, and is approximately 22 miles from

Liberty Exchange: Brochure Elevations Site Plan Website

Columbia, MD, 25 miles from downtown Baltimore and 35 miles away from Washington, D.C.

"Carroll County represents an excellent environment to continue our model of creating mixed-use business communities. The region features strong fundamentals such as positive job growth, an expanding population base and a highly-educated workforce" said Jerry Wit, Senior Vice President of Marketing for St. John Properties. "We have designed Liberty Exchange to be a self-contained business community with retail amenities that will relieve the traffic pressure from the nearby road network."

The park's retail components will feature frontage and roadside visibility from Liberty Road. The office component of Liberty Exchange will feature 16 foot ceiling heights, dock or drive-in rear loading capabilities and free surface parking. Nearly 43,000 consumers reside within a five-mile radius of the site, with an average household income exceeding $103,000.

"We are extremely confident in our ability to successfully lease all three product types in this section of Carroll County in an accelerated time frame," Wit added. "Our research shows an ever-increasing demand among Class A office users, our R & D buildings are perfectly suited for both small and medium-sized firms with flexible needs, and we believe we can attract interest in new retailers looking to tap into the Carroll County market."

source: Citybiz Real Estate

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