Omega's new locale places it off Interstate 83, halfway betweendowntown Baltimore and the Baltimore-Washington InternationalAirport. Located at 9690 Deereco Rd., the 13-year-old building isalso home to Grotech Capital Group, an underwriting office of theFireman's Fund, and Dun & Bradstreet. The entirestructure--which is owned by Corporate Office PropertiesTrust--offers 132,319 sf of space and is on the Building Owners andManagers Association Best in Industry list. COPT's management arm,Corporate Realty Management, oversees the Class A officeproperty.

"The decision to move was really a decision that the board ofdirectors made," explains Omega CEO C. Taylor Pickett. The 8-story,stand-alone Timonium building will be headquarters for thecompany's twenty staffers, several of whom will be moving fromMichigan. "The company's small," says Pickett, a Baltimore-areanative. "The staff here [in Ann Arbor] is 29, but we actually thinkwe can run the business with 20." Omega is publicly owned.

The company reports a loss for the third quarter, partially dueto a $4.3 million charge for related moving expenses. And thisweek, the company reports the November 1 sale of 17 properties toHickory Creek Healthcare Foundation Inc. Hickory is to pay Omegathe $10.5 million mortgage on the properties. Third quarter reportsnote the company has 246 skilled nursing and assisted livingfacilities spread throughout 29 states.