The City of Aberdeen and Howard County were designated Monday as BRAC zones as part of a state program helping communities raise millions of dollars to improve its roads, rails and water systems.
Aberdeen’s BRAC zone includes nearly 1.2 million square feet of development space, including the 756,000-square-foot North Gate Business Park, a project by Columbia’s Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE: OFC).
The town of Aberdeen will be one of the most significantly impacted by the federal Base Realignment and Closure plan, slated to bring an estimated 25,000 new jobs to Greater Baltimore by fall 2011.
An estimated 8,200 military jobs will be moving to Aberdeen Proving Ground under the BRAC plan, bringing with them a network of about 150 defense contracting firms that do business with the incoming government agencies.
In Howard County, the 600,000-square-foot Savage Towne Center project was picked to be a BRAC Zone. The mixed-use, 13-acre development includes office, residential, retail and hotel space.
There are now seven BRAC Zones in the state.
Other BRAC Zones include Westport in Baltimore, Laurel, Odenton, Frederick and land near Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County.
To help communities prepare for the influx, Gov. Martin O’Malley signed legislation in May 2008 creating BRAC Revitalization and Community Enhancement Zones. Among other things, the BRAC zones enable local governments to seek state funding for improvement projects in specific geographic areas.
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