14C — December 24, 2021 - January 20, 2022 — Industry Experts — Owners, Developers & Managers — M id A tlantic Real Estate Journal
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Industry Experts
With continued focus on sustainability and expansion into new markets St. John Properties, Inc. celebrates 50 years of leadership in real estate development
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use of energy efficient electric vehicles, St. John Properties has installed electric vehicle charging stations at all newly constructed multi-story of- fice buildings across their portfolio. Forty-six charging stations have been installed since 2011 , and the company has committed to ensuring all new office and flex/R&D build - ings will be EV-ready by proac- tively installing infrastructure to support future demand for charging equipment. One of the company’s sus- tainability goals is to roll out a scalable and economic solar approach on top of all building types and to deliver buildings that naturally produce more energy than they use, in order to create a net positive. Future sustainability endeavors also include a focus on building health and wellness and a continuation of their LED lighting program, which has resulted in the upgrade of more than 10,000 lighting fix - tures throughout the St. John Properties portfolio to date. Talent pipeline generated by Partner-in-Training program energizes national expansion St. John Properties will continue their long-termplan to establish independent satellite offices in emerging and economically-diverse markets across the country. The company’s pioneering Partner-in-Training program provides candidates with rigorous training and educa- tion in every discipline of the commercial real estate pro- cess including development, construction and sustain- ability, marketing, leasing, tenant improvements and property management. Upon completion of the four-year program, professionals will open a new St. John Proper- ties regional office. Six professionals have completed the Partner-in- Training program, and an additional six are currently enrolled. St. John Properties is currently targeting several newmarkets to enter, specifi - cally those in the Southern regions of the country. “Young professionals en- rolled in our Partner-in- Training Program repre- sent the future of St. John Properties,” said Lawrence Maykrantz , president and CEO of St. John Properties. “This program requires long-
term investment of human and financial resources to execute our expansion objec- tives throughout the United States. We have found this to be a highly-effective way to identify talented profes- sionals who we believe have the skills and leadership traits to manage a team and effectively execute our development program.” 50 YEARS OF BUILDING INNOVATION After graduating with his Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Mary- land College Park, Edward St. John assumed control of his family’s small com- mercial real estate portfolio, which included five 10,000 s/f industrial buildings. He began to learn the intricacies of commercial real estate and the responsibilities of being a landlord while working with his tenants, which were com- prised of a variety of small and medium-sized business- es. Listening to and placing the needs of his tenants first was an early lesson learned and this stimulated his drive to expand his portfolio. As he gained a better un- derstanding of companies’ commercial real estate needs, St. John began to focus on developing a “part office/part industrial” single-story build- ing separated into bays which enabled companies to achieve the custom configuration that their individual busi- ness required. Professional service-oriented companies were able to design a space consisting of nearly 100% office space, while small- manufacturing entities could create an environment with 90% production/warehouse space and 10% office space. The relative percentages of these configurations were limited only by the imagina- tion of the end-users. Each building was outfitted with a standard office door in the front entrance of the bay and an 8 x 10-foot drive-in door in the rear that was suitable to accept and output over-sized equipment or deliveries. After a client remarked that he spent considerable time at the office and desired an envi - ronment that better reminded him of his home, St. John sig- nificantly upgraded the build - ing with an elevated brick and glass exterior and residential- like landscaping. This practice
soon expanded throughout the company’s portfolio. The com- pany, then named Maryland Industrial Enterprises and subsequently MIE Properties, Inc., quickly began to assemble land holdings and construct- ing flex/R&D buildings and small business communities throughout Maryland and Northern Virginia, making St. John one of the first to widely develop the product across the market – a product that is still ubiquitous with St. John Properties today. Speculative development approach fuels growth by anticipating client needs The company, which re- branded to St. John Proper- ties, Inc. in 2005, is differenti- ated in the marketplace by its philosophy of developing real estate product on a speculative basis. This enables St. John Properties to immediately respond to the emerging re- quirements of new and exist- ing clients. During each of the last four consecutive years, the company has specula- tively broken ground on more than one million square feet of space throughout its eight- state portfolio. The company expanded to Colorado and Wisconsin in 1987, opened a regional of- fice in Frederick, Maryland to service Central Maryland and Northern Virginia in 1996, and entered the Louisiana marketplace in 2000. In 2012 the company purchased the one million s/f Harrisburg Mall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and launched its gaming division with Boomtown Casino is Reno, Nevada. In 2014, St. John Properties opened its most recent regional office in Utah. Company began development of high- profile mixed-use communities in 2011 In Howard County, Mary- land, the company partnered withmaster developer Greene- baum Enterprises on the of- fice and flex/R&D buildings at Maple Lawn, a mixed- use community that contains more than one million square feet of commercial office and flex/R&D space, as well as medical buildings and retail uses in a “Main Street-style” environment. TheMaple Lawn community boasts approxi- mately 1,300 residential units including townhomes and single-family houses. continued on page 16C
ALTIMORE, MD — St. John Proper- ties, Inc. , a commer-
cial real estate development, management and investment company headquartered in Baltimore and founded in 1971 by Edward St. John , is celebrating its 50-year anni- versary with a renewed focus on building sustainability and growth. Their 21 million s/f real estate portfolio is valued at over $4 billion, spans eight states and serves more than 2,500 clients. St. John Proper- ties is one of the top five devel - opers of LEED space nation- ally, and intends to continue to be a leader in sustainability innovation with a mission to deliver buildings that produce more energy than they use, and to further refine processes that improve indoor air quality while boosting employee well- ness and productivity. “The conservation of energy and natural resources, along with the ongoing need to devel- op and innovate environmen- tally-friendly buildings have become a priority in attracting new tenants,” said Edward St. John, founder and Chairman of St. John Properties. “We have become the gold standard in formulating and executing a feasible and sustainable plan for green architecture and will continue evolving in the future.” Focus on building sustainability program designed to create new industry standards A key mission of St. John Properties is to develop sus- tainable buildings constructed with materials that contrib- ute to an eco-friendly envi- ronment, while maintaining indoor environments that promote employee wellness and conserve energy and re- sources. In an effort to fulfill this mission, the company was one of the first organizations to establish a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program in 2009 . Led by a dedicated team of full-time sustainability pro- fessionals, St. John Properties has now constructed 87 build- ings comprising more than five million square feet of LEED certified space. Deve l oped by the U.S. Green Building Council , LEED is the most widely used green building rating system in the world, and provides a framework for healthy, highly
Edward St. John
efficient, and cost-saving green buildings. Recognized as Wash- ington D.C., Maryland and Virginia’s top LEED developer and among the top five develop - ers of LEED space nationally, St. John Properties has a goal of reaching 100 LEED-certified commercial buildings, totaling six million square feet of space by 2023. Last year St. JohnProperties received the Maryland Chap- ter of U.S. Green Building Council’s “Community Change Agent” award for outstanding efforts in designing and con- structing healthy buildings and for the company’s overall impact and leadership in the LEED initiative. The company’s innovative UV Whole Building Air Pu- rification process, announced earlier this year, is a multi- step strategy that features the installation of UV-C light disinfecting systems designed to eliminate airborne patho- gens such as fungal spores, bacteria and viruses that can pass through a build- ing’s HVAC equipment. The process involves replacing existing HVAC air filters with higher-efficiency models that capture more airborne par- ticles; upgrading coil cleaning and HVAC system sanitation, resulting in increased air flow; and utilizing longer HVAC runtimes, allowing for more frequent fresh air circula- tion throughout a building. To date, St. John Properties has installed these upgraded HVAC systems in 23 of their multi-story office buildings, comprising nearly 2.4 mil- lion square feet of space. The company plans to implement these systems during the con- struction of all newmulti-story office buildings going forward. In an effort to support the
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