COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Corporate Office Properties Trust (“COPT” or the “Company”) (NYSE: OFC) executed a 60,000 square foot lease at 5801 University Research Court, a three-story, 71,000 square foot building under construction in the University of Maryland’s Discovery District. The Discovery District is a key piece of the university’s Greater College Park initiative, a $2 billion public-private investment to revitalize the Baltimore Avenue corridor and academic campus. The approximately 150-acre Discovery District will be an epicenter of academic, research, and economic development. Located at the intersection of the existing Green and future Purple Metro Lines, this mixed-use district will serve as a key gateway to the University of Maryland.
The lease represents 84% of the building’s rentable square feet, and the start date is scheduled for July 2018. With this transaction, COPT’s active construction pipeline of 742,000 square feet in seven separate developments is now 91% leased.
Company Information
COPT is an office REIT that owns, manages, leases, develops and selectively acquires office and data center properties in locations that support the United States Government and its contractors, most of whom are engaged in national security, defense and information technology (“IT”) related activities servicing what it believes are growing, durable, priority missions (“Defense/IT Locations”). The Company also owns a portfolio of office properties located in select urban/urban-like submarkets in the Greater Washington, DC/Baltimore region with durable Class-A office fundamentals and characteristics (“Regional Office Properties”). As of December 31, 2017, the Company derived 88% of core portfolio annualized revenue from Defense/IT Locations and 12% from its Regional Office Properties. As of December 31, 2017 and including six buildings owned through an unconsolidated joint venture, COPT’s core portfolio of 156 office and data center shell properties encompassed 17.1 million square feet and was 95.1% leased. As of the same date, the Company also owned one wholesale data center with a critical load of 19.25 megawatts.
Forward-Looking Information
This press release may contain “forward-looking” statements, as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, that are based on the Company’s current expectations, estimates and projections about future events and financial trends affecting the Company. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “estimate,” “plan” or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which the Company cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Company might not even anticipate. Accordingly, the Company can give no assurance that these expectations, estimates and projections will be achieved. Future events and actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements.
Important factors that may affect these expectations, estimates, and projections include, but are not limited to:
- general economic and business conditions, which will, among other things, affect office property and data center demand and rents, tenant creditworthiness, interest rates, financing availability and property values;
- adverse changes in the real estate markets including, among other things, increased competition with other companies;
- governmental actions and initiatives, including risks associated with the impact of a prolonged government shutdown or budgetary reductions or impasses, such as a reduction in rental revenues, non-renewal of leases, and/or a curtailment of demand for additional space by the Company's strategic customers;
- the Company’s ability to borrow on favorable terms;
- risks of real estate acquisition and development activities, including, among other things, risks that development projects may not be completed on schedule, that tenants may not take occupancy or pay rent or that development or operating costs may be greater than anticipated;
- risks of investing through joint venture structures, including risks that the Company’s joint venture partners may not fulfill their financial obligations as investors or may take actions that are inconsistent with the Company’s objectives;
- changes in the Company’s plans for properties or views of market economic conditions or failure to obtain development rights, either of which could result in recognition of significant impairment losses;
- the Company’s ability to satisfy and operate effectively under Federal income tax rules relating to real estate investment trusts and partnerships;
- possible adverse changes in tax laws;
- the Company's ability to achieve projected results;
- the dilutive effects of issuing additional common shares; and
- environmental requirements.
The Company undertakes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements. For further information, please refer to the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.
