Water Disaster Leads to Real Estate Expansion

TIMONIUM, MD-Wireless communications product solutions provider TESSCO Technologies Inc. has turned a negative into a positive with the signing of a lease on nearly 95,000 sf at the Atrium Building, a 100,000-sf structure at 375 Padonia Rd. Having been forced to leave its company-owned building after the collapse of a major public water main devastated left the property uninhabitable last year, TESSCO originally subleased 2,500 sf at Padonia Rd. to accommodate some of its employees. The price per sf on such class B suburban Maryland office properties ranges from $12 to $24. That small amount of space grew into the 95,000 sf that the company just recently committed to in a new lease. And the new lease comes despite the fact that TESSCO’s former home in Hunt Valley has been rehabilitated and is now ready for use again.

“Because of the total devastation of the space, in many respects we were forced to start from scratch with the build-out of the space,” TESSCO’s Doug Rein explains. “Given that clean-slate scenario, we took the opportunity to totally re-evaluate the best use of our real estate holdings. Because everyone seemed so pleased with the new office environment at 375 Padonia Rd., we decided to convert much of our previous space in Hunt Valley to a training center, distribution operation, corporate computer center and cafeteria. The building was given a new mission.” NAI Blue/Obrecht represented TESSCO in the lease deal, while NAI KLNB stood in for the owner of Padonia Rd.