More Park Than Office at Fort Meade

Mark Corneal looks at the government-owned land outside the gates of Fort Meade and, instead of 173 acres of dense woods, sees Maryland's next hot spot for development.

There could be 10 office buildings, or even 15, he says from his Georgetown office, pointing to a slick mock-up of his plan. Besides 1.5 million to 2 million square feet of commercial space, Corneal, a senior vice president at Trammell Crow, is aiming for a jogging path and enough trees to make the office park "more park than office."

After 27 years in the Washington area's commercial real estate market, Corneal is tackling his biggest project. The future Fort Meade Technology Center, he said, could transform the Washington-Baltimore corridor between I-95 and the National Security Agency. "This is a gem," he said of the property. "It's a unique opportunity for office users to be really close to the base."

The Pentagon is reorganizing military bases around the country, hoping to use them more efficiently as it rolls out projects to generate cash by leasing federal land for private development. In the vanguard of this "enhanced-use lease" program is the Fort Meade project, which will help absorb some of the 22,000 federal and private-sector jobs that base reorganization is expected to bring to the area. Trammell Crow, which is based in Dallas and has had a major presence in Washington since 1978, was chosen last year as the developer, and is in the middle of negotiating the terms of a 50-year lease so it can begin what it estimates will be $700 million construction project.

It is an approach being adopted by other bases: LW Redstone is developing a commercial office complex at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., and General Motors is leasing a hot-weather test track at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. Similar projects are under consideration at Fort Hood, Tex., and Fort Knox, Ky.

The lease agreement "holds the key" to preparing Fort Meade for the arrival of thousands of employees due to the Base Realignment and Closure process, said Col. Kenneth O. McCreedy, the base commander. For example, as part of the deal, Trammell Crow also will provide in-kind services to the Army, close down a pair of golf courses in the middle of the base and build new courses on 367 acres along another side of the installation. That will make room for a new office building for Defense Information Systems Agency, which is moving to the base.

Concerns have been raised about the environmental impact of all the construction on property that, for the 90 years of the base's existence, has been undeveloped woodland with a small stream snaking through it. "Any action that has a potential impact on the environment is a concern," McCreedy said. The Army is working on a plan to mitigate the loss of trees, he said.

"Our goal is to preserve 20 percent of the forested area on the site. If this is not feasible on the site, then other areas of [Fort Meade] will be used to replant trees to [equal] the 20 percent," said Mick Butler, chief of Fort Meade's environmental division.

Some Anne Arundel County officials are concerned that because Trammell Crow's buildings will be on federal land, the company and its renters will not pay property taxes to help cover the cost of additional congestion. County Executive John Leopold is hoping Congress will step in and help offset the millions of dollars in services that the workers are expected to cost the county. "Anne Arundel is losing out on revenue," he said.

The Baltimore Metropolitan Council is studying the regional impact of such arrangements, including at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, which is pursuing two leasing arrangements on more than 1,500 acres of land, including one for a police and anti-terrorism training center. The contractors "drive on our roads, they use water, they add to the economy but they are also using county services none the less," said council Director Larry Klimovitz. "Once they come outside the gate, they are users of county services."

The council would ultimately like federal aid for the agreements similar to what local communities receive to offset the cost of children who live on military bases but go to public schools, Klimovitz said.

On the corporate side, Corneal is tackling the same issues. He said Trammell Crow is committed to retaining some open space. "I am talking about natural environment, streams, wetlands, woodlands," he said.

The group he leads at Trammell Crow also is meeting with local officials to discuss infrastructure issues, Corneal said. The company, for example, could work out an agreement to pay local communities a set fee for using their services, including fire and police support, he said.

Corneal expects to break ground on the Fort Meade project next year, and begin moving people into the buildings in late 2009. The project could take a decade to complete, depending on demands created by the BRAC process, he said.

He and his seven-member internal team are busy negotiating the terms of their deal with the Army, including how much rent the company will pay. Simultaneously, the firm has begun preliminary discussions with potential clients, including government contractors that would benefit from being close to the base and health-care providers and universities interested in targeting the influx of new workers. "They're not guaranteeing us any clients," Corneal said of the deal with the Army.

Corneal, 52, got into the real estate business as a commercial loan officer at Maryland National Bank in the early 1980s before deciding that the development side could be more exciting. "I am persistent and I take a long-range view of things," he said. "If I was into instant gratification, I wouldn't be in this business."

In 1991, Corneal joined PCI, the investment arm of Pepco, helping develop hundreds of acres of unused land it owned, including industrial, commercial and residential parks at Buzzard Point.

His patience was tested in the case of one 250-acre parcel in Beltsville that turned into a 12-year-project. Most of the land was zoned as an industrial park, but after a study of the land, Corneal decided the property adjacent to the historically black Prince George's County neighborhood was mislabeled. "I determined it would make a lousy industrial park, but a great residential neighborhood," he said.

A crucial step in persuading the county to rezone the land, Corneal said, was enlisting the Queens Chapel United Methodist Church as an ally. The property was ultimately divided into two housing developments, Snowden Woods and the 400-home Longwood neighborhood. The project was finished in 2003 -- in time to take advantage of the housing boom -- and Trammell Crow gave the church several acres of land.