All it took was a gamble.
In 1996, St. John Properties Inc., a Baltimore-based real estate development company, purchased almost 500 acres of troubled property known as Melford at the intersection of Route 50 and 3/301 in Bowie.
Featuring a $25 million ramp off of the highway on the state?s tab, the property even had a doormat waiting to be used. Still, it lay dormant more than 10 years.
All it took to make the property take off, said Gerrard Wit, the senior vice president of marketing at St. John, was the belief that “if we build it, business will come.”
“Everyone else had been waiting for the tenants to come and then build, but we are going to build the buildings first,” Wit said.
Maryland Science and Technology Center currently calls the land home, with a 3.2 million-square-foot mixed-use development building prominently featured on the property.
Early last year, St. John completed the construction of Melford Plaza 1, a four-story building featuring 150,000 square feet of office space. Two key companies that have signed leases include international defense systems provider ITT Corp., and the Lennar Corp., a national homebuilder with a headquarters in Silver Spring. For 2006, St. John leased more than 200,000 square feet at the site.
The development also will feature 866 residences, including 500 condominiums and 200 residential units. The gated community will become an integral part of the project and provide a built-in worker and consumer base for the Melford Complex, developers hope.
Columbia-based Hospitality Development Co. threw its hat into the ring last fall with the intention to develop, own and manage three different Marriott hotels. Led by its president and managing member Ernest Murphy, the hotels will include a Courtyard, Residence Inn and Springhill Suites by Marriott on about 8.6 acres purchased for around $6.58 million.
“We typically gravitate towards business communities that are still undergoing development so we can become part of the energy and momentum of the project,” Ernest said in a statement.
The Courtyard is expected to be finished in October 2008.
