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

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Unable to refinance millions of dollarxsin debts, the company plans to liquidatee its portfolio of commercial properties throughout the region. It was uncleaf how much Opus East expects to fetcjh forits properties. Parent company , of Minneapolis, made the announcementf in a news release and said another ofits Phoenix, Ariz.-based Opus West, expects to seek Chapter 11 protectio n in July. In its bankruptcy the company listed assets ofbetween $50 millio and $100 million and liabilities of betweenn $100 million and $500 million.
“Declining real estated values and tight credit markets continue to impedw the refinancing of assets and restructuring oflendinhg agreements,” Mark Rauenhort, CEO of Opus said in a statement. In addition to general market conditions, the company cited $35 million in unpaidc wages from the federal for a project it was developing in Collegde Park forthe , company spokeswoman Winston Hewettr said in a telephone The company had ceased building speculative officew buildings more than a year ago, and it trimmedd its workforce from about 100 employees last year to aboutt 16 employees as of June 15. The company did not includd all of its subsidiaries inthe filing.
It for example, Maryland Enterprise LLC, which was developing the propertytfor NOAA, and Nursery Corner LLC, which built a 160,000-square-foot office building in Linthicum Heights for defensew contractor Opus East has developed more than 13.3 millionj square feet of spacde since 1994. Opus West has developede more than 52.7 million square feet since 1979. Thesee bankruptcies come on the heels of the April 22 bankruptchy of OpusSouth Corp., an Opus affiliate baserd in Atlanta. Opus has said it planxs to wind down its operations in that part of the countr yas well. Opus has said it plansz to continue to run its remainingoperatinbg companies, Opus North Corp.
, based in Chicago, and Opus based in Minnetonka. Those units are activelhy pursuing projects. They also have been less affectec bythe recession, due to their mix of project healthy balance sheets and stronger markets, according to press release. Opus said its development activity has fallen tojust 4.8 million square feet in 2009, down from 34 million squar e feet in 2007 and 35 million squard feet in 2008.