Baltimore Business Journal | Melody Simmons

Pipeline Soccer Club is one of four tenants to sign new lease deals at St. John Properties’ Greenleigh development in Middle River in recent months as the project nears the halfway mark.

The popular Maryland youth soccer club with more than 1,000 players moved into a 6,074-square-foot performance center at the Baltimore County development near two other tenants that have signed new or expanded leases: residential brokerage firm Samson Properties and medical benefits company Smart Care LLC.

Wilmington, Delaware-based electrical contractor Hatzel & Buehler Inc. also signed a deal recently to double its existing office space to 20,000 square feet at 11695 Crossroads Circle, St. John officials said Wednesday.

Samson Properties leased 10,600 square feet of office space at 6200 Greenleigh Ave. The brokerage company has 30 office locations in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. including offices in Bel Air and Columbia, and is expecting about 200 of its workers to be based at Greenleigh.

Smart Care is expanding into 17,000 square feet of office space at Greenleigh. The company currently leases 6,400 square feet in the development.

Matt Lenihan, vice president of leasing for St. John, represented the landlord in both transactions.

The Pipeline Soccer deal was signed last year and the youth soccer club moved into the space in late 2020. The lease includes a 4,000-square-foot training facility at 1310 Innovation St., and offices for more than 50 Pipeline workers, a gym and classroom space.

Pipeline Soccer was founded in 2011 by Sean Rush, who started his professional career playing for the Baltimore Bays, and Santino Quaranta, who played for D.C. United in Major League Soccer. Both Rush and Quaranta played high school soccer in the Baltimore area.

The club today has 66 boys and girls soccer teams in the Maryland region that play on outdoor home fields in Bel Air and Baltimore City.

Rush said the new housing starts in the Greenleigh development helped to seal the deal, because future Pipeline players could be residents.

“Greenleigh stood out initially based on its location, nearly equidistant from our outdoor fields in Baltimore City and Harford County,” Rush said, in a statement. “Upon touring the community, we understood the acceleration of housing underway that will feed our program in the future as well as the rich supply of restaurants serving residents and business people. These amenities are the perfect place for parents to gather together while their children practice and train at our facility.”

The Greenleigh project is nearing its halfway mark and is expected to hold about 1,900 residential units, 740,000 square feet of Class A office space, 828,000 square feet of flex space and 197,000 square feet of retail when built out.

Woodlawn-based St. John Properties and Elm Street Development are the lead partners.

The mixed-use project’s mission is to transform once-barren land off Route 43 near Interstate 95 into a community similar to Howard County’s Maple Lawn development in Fulton. So far, the property has hundreds of new single family and townhouse residential units, most already sold. Greenleigh also has retail and office space that has attracted a regional offices for tool maker Stanley Black & Decker Inc.

Retail tenants at Greenleigh include Michael’s Café Raw Bar & Grill, Potomac Pizza Grill, Dunkin’ Donuts, Royal Farms, Subway and Crossroads Wine & Spirits. A 120-key Marriott SpringHill Suites hotel that opened in 2018 is also located at the project.