Group relocating approximately 40 employees to Anne Arundel County

BALTIMORE, MD – Multi-disciplined engineering firm S-E-A has signed two leases with St. John Properties, Inc. totaling approximately 31,000 square feet of space at Aviation Business Park. The Anne Arundel County business community is comprised of more than 120,000 square feet of space, and was acquired by St. John Properties in 2023. S-E-A, a Columbus, Ohio-based group with 12 offices nationwide, leased 22,077 square feet of office space at 6956 Aviation Boulevard, and 8,900 square feet of flex/R&D space at 6958 Aviation Boulevard. St. John Properties’ Lacey Johansson represented the landlord and Matt Curran and Andrew Meeder of MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services represented the tenant in this transaction.

S-E-A plans to relocate nearly 40 employees to the two buildings by this summer and is expanding from their previous location within the St. John Properties-owned Cromwell Business Park, where they had been located since 2015. The forensic engineering firm specializes in failure analysis, accident investigation, and visualization services. The company provides expert analysis, testing, and litigation support in a wide array of industries including transportation, construction, consumer products, maritime, retail, heavy equipment, and others.

According to Mike Jacobson, Civil Engineer/Manager, Baltimore Operations for S-E-A, the primary driver of the expansion and relocation was the need to acquire additional space for engineering, testing, and laboratory functions. The decision to lease space in two adjacent buildings also worked to the company’s advantage, with the opportunity to utilize one solely for its warehouse requirements.

“Our move is a short one – less than one mile – so there should be no inconvenience imposed on our employees and clients, which was extremely important to us,” explained Jacobson. “But the new spaces provide us with a clean slate and the opportunity to execute a first-class tenant build-out that will allow us to showcase our company’s abilities and provide an attractive and productive work environment for our team. Part of this build-out also involves a testing laboratory that will support a variety of our core services, and the ground-floor location and flexible building layout were important considerations for us.”  

Timed with its acquisition of Aviation Business Park in 2023, St. John Properties revealed plans to reposition 6958 Aviation Boulevard from a single-story office to a flex/R&D building by installing drive-in doors and modifying a portion of the parking field to accommodate loading capability. The retrofit cost approximately $1.5 million.

“We have been very pleased with our decision to convert 6958 Aviation Boulevard into a flex/R&D building, as it allowed us to accommodate S-E-A’s growth within the BWI submarket,” stated Matt Lenihan, St. John Properties’ Executive Vice President of Leasing. “We strive to find practical real estate solutions for any St. John tenant who requires expansion space at any time, and this transaction is a great example of our team’s ability to deliver on that commitment.”

Aviation Business Park consists of two single-story office buildings and one flex/R&D building totaling over 120,600 square feet of commercial space. The nearly 12-acre business community is located adjacent to BWI Airport and Interstate 97, as well as St. John Properties’ 165-acre Cromwell Business Park. Cromwell Business Park and Aviation Business Park are collectively 90%occupied. Given the success, St. John Properties has commenced speculative construction on two inline retail buildings at Cromwell Business Park, the buildings together total more than 20,000 square feet and deliver later in 2025.

Founded in 1971, St. John Properties, Inc. is one of the nation’s largest and most successful privately held commercial real estate firms. The company is distinguished by its commitment to customer service, achievements in green building, and top-rated workplace culture. Throughout St. John Properties’ 54-year history, the company has developed more than 24 million square feet of flex/R&D, office, retail, and warehouse space and has investments in over 3,000 residential units. The company proudly serves more than 2,600 clients in Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Utah, and Wisconsin. For more information about the company, visit www.sjpi.com.