Abingdon Woods Developer Bows Out Of Project

Bel Air MD

11 March, 2021

1:29 PM

Description

ABINGDON, MD — The development company overseeing the proposed Abingdon Business Park has sold its interest in the contract, officials said. For the past three years, Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC has been working on permitting, marketing and design for the project. The proposed Abingdon Business Park called for warehouses and other commercial buildings on 326.47 acres between Abingdon Road and Van Bibber Road. Chesapeake Real Estate Group announced it sold its interest to an "unrelated third-party entity" in a statement released Thursday that disclosed neither the buyer nor the sale price. "The opportunity costs and development timeline associated with this project outweighed the upside for our company," Chesapeake Real Estate Group President Jim Lighthizer said in a statement. "We felt the time was right to head in a different direction." Environmental groups, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Gunpowder Riverkeeper, took issue with the project and filed suit over the developer's plan to destroy forests and wetlands. Neighbors also formed the Save Abingdon Woods group on Facebook to organize their advocacy efforts and spoke out against the project at a hearing in 2019. Members of the Edgewood Middle School Ecology Club and Harford Climate Action shared concerns over the impact on the Haha Branch and connected waterways at the hearing, which the Maryland Department of the Environment held because the developer filed a permit to alter wetlands and waterways. "We wish the buyers luck as we look forward to refocus and deploy our resources on our other projects under construction and in our pipeline," Lighthizer said of the Abingdon project. Other developments the company has worked on in Harford County include the Trimble Road Business Park and the Perryman Logistics Center. In December it also sold its interest in a 600,000-square-foot project in Severn called the Route 100 Logistics Park, which Chesapeake Real Estate Group reported was a positive sign. Said Lighthizer: "These sale transactions are further indication of a red-hot e-commerce and industrial real estate market that shows no signs of slowing down." See Also: Abingdon Business Park Opposition Mounts Over Wetland DestructionJudge Throws Out Lawsuit Challenging Bulldozing Of Abingdon Woods