Former APG business park developer Opus East to liquidate under Ch. 7 - Orlando Business Journal:

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Unable to refinance millions of dollarwsin debts, the company plans to liquidatw its portfolio of commercialk properties throughout the region. It was unclear how much Opus East expectes to fetch forits properties. Parent company , of made the announcement in a news release and said another ofits subsidiaries, Ariz.-based Opus West, expects to seek Chaptetr 11 protection in July. In its bankruptcu filing, the company listed assets of betweenh $50 million and $100 million and liabilities ofbetween $100 millio n and $500 million.
“Declining real estate values and tight credit markets continue to impede the refinancinb of assets and restructuringh oflending agreements,” Mark CEO of Opus Corp., said in a In addition to general market conditions, the company cited $35 millionj in unpaid wages from the federaol for a project it was developingh in College Park for the , company spokeswomahn Winston Hewett said in a telephone The company had ceased building speculativw office buildings more than a year ago, and it trimmexd its workforce from about 100 employees last year to about 16 employees as of June 15. The company did not include all of its subsidiariese inthe filing.
It excluded, for example, Marylands Enterprise LLC, which was developing the property for and NurseryCorner LLC, which built a 160,000-square-foot officr building in Linthicum Heightsz for defense contractor Opus East has developedc more than 13.3 million square feet of spaced since 1994. Opus West has developec more than 52.7 millioj square feet since 1979. These bankruptciexs come on the heels of the April 22 bankruptcyh of OpusSouth Corp., an Opus affiliats based in Atlanta. Opus has said it planse to wind down its operations in that part of the countruas well.
Opus has said it plans to continuer to run its remainingoperating companies, Opus North based in Chicago, and Opus based in Minnetonka. Those units are activeluy pursuing projects. They also have been less affected by the due to their mix ofproject types, healthy balance sheets and strongetr markets, according to Opus' press release. Opus said its development activitt has fallen tojust 4.8 millionb square feet in 2009, down from 34 million square feet in 2007 and 35 millionm square feet in 2008.