COPT To Acquire $363M Portfolio

COLUMBIA, MD-Corporate Office Properties Trust has entered into an agreement to buy a 55-asset portfolio in Maryland from Nottingham Properties for $362.5 million. Nottingham owns and manages investment properties in many Baltimore submarkets including White Marsh, Towson, Hunt Valley, Owings Mills, Columbia and the BWI/Airport area.

The portfolio totals 2.4 million sf. It includes land parcels that total 187 acres, according to a SEC filing by COPT. The bulk of the property–36 operating properties, totaling 1.6 million sf, and 175 acres of land parcels–is located in the White Marsh submarket of North Baltimore County. The remaining assets are in other North Baltimore submarkets and in the Baltimore/Washington Corridor. The transaction is expected to be completed in January 2007. The deal has already been approved by COPT’s board of trustees, according to the filing.

Once the deal is complete, COPT will be the largest owner of office properties in White Marsh, which is some 18 miles from the US Army base Aberdeen Proving Ground. According to the filing, COPT is expecting to leverage Aberdeen’s proximity for existing and future defense industry tenants. The deal also gives COPT an additional two million sf of developable space.