St. John Properties is currently spearheading two major projects that are transforming Frederick’s east side and bringing new jobs and industry to the region. Below we take a quick look at these projects and hear from St. John Properties’ Regional Partner, Matt Holbrook, on the vision behind these game-changing developments.
East Park
Credit: St. John Properties Inc.
The new 77-acre Frederick County business community will include 681,960 square feet of flex/R&D and high-bay warehouse space, ideal for a wide-range of uses including biotech, office, warehouse, distribution, and manufacturing.
Current plans feature: Three Flex/RD buildings ranging from 42,120 SF to 47,160 SF with 16 - 18 foot ceilings; one 176,800 SF bulk/warehouse building with 32 foot ceilings; and two pad sides (3.78 acres, and 2.60 acres). Explore it here.
Expansion of Riverside Tech Park
The growing business park now spans 70 acres — featuring 14 flex, R&D, and office buildings. In 2019, the developer acquired 12.6 acres of land situated adjacent to its established Riverside Tech Park near Monocacy Boulevard and Progress Drive in Frederick. Over the past two years, the company has worked to construct four new single-story R&D/Office/flex buildings totaling 146,600 SF. Goodwill Industries of Monocacy Valley pre-leased two of the buildings. The non-profit plans to relocated its administrative offices and an existing retail outlet to the new headquarter buildings. The buildings will also serve as the home to a Veteran Services Center, operated in partnership with Platoon 22.
Most recently, St. John Properties has acquired an additional tract of land across Broadband Drive. The new property offers an opportunity for the construction of two new flex/R&D buildings, both 50,000 SF+. Explore it here.
From the desk of Matt Holbrook, St. JOhn Properties’ Regional Partner:
The continued vibrancy and growth of Riverside Tech Park and EastPark translates into more jobs, an increased amount of small and larger business, and a higher tax base for the City of Frederick. Based on strong demand driven from the biotech, government contracting, and logistics industries, we are developing the final 10 acres of Riverside Tech Park, which will now total more than 750,000 square feet of R&D/flex/office space. That same activity is creating additional momentum at our EastPark development, which will include nearly 700,000 square feet of R&D/flex/office buildings, high-bay R&D/office/warehouse buildings, plus supporting retail amenities.
Over half of our company’s 50-year history has been in Frederick where we have built and continue to own and manage approximately 1.3 million square feet commercial space. Our under-construction and imminent projects will increase this total to more than two million square feet in Frederick over the next several years. All of this space is delivered on a speculative basis to satisfy the emerging requirements of existing and future tenants.
The I-270 corridor alone is one of the largest life science clusters in the U.S. with more than 500 biotech firms and more than 2,300 life science companies and it leads the world in adult stem cell production and vaccine development according to the Maryland Department of Commerce. At the top of the corridor is Frederick, Maryland which is home to the numerous life-science and biological commands, agencies, and institutes of Fort Detrick as well as National Cancer Institute (NCI) Frederick Campus. NCI is the largest funder of cancer research in the world and its Frederick campus comprises a community of more than 3,000 government and contractor staff of biomedical researchers and laboratory technicians. It also boasts the Nation’s only Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) devoted exclusively to biomedical research.
Frederick is also an extremely attractive place for companies to operate, based on its outstanding quality of life, proximity to Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and Baltimore, tremendous retail amenities and ever-expanding residential product with more than 2300 homes currently planned around Riverside and EastPark. Organizations across all industries continue to re-examine their urban presence to take advantage of open floorplates, free parking and less downtown congestion found outside the beltways. Our entire Frederick-based portfolio is positioned to take further advantage of this shift by providing high-quality and expertly-managed real estate.
Stay up-to-date with other future commercial projects around the City on our website at: Developments Across the City | Frederick Business, MD (businessinfrederick.com).