Atradius is moving its HQ to Schilling Green in Hunt Valley

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jun 17, 2009 by Robbie Whelan

Atradius, the Dutch finance company that has its North American headquarters in Baltimore County, has chosen to go green.

The credit insurance company is moving from its Class-B White Marsh flex space to Schilling Green, a LEED-Gold certified property in Hunt Valley built by Baltimore developer Merritt Properties. The move will bring the 135,000-square-foot building's occupancy to 50 percent just 10 months after it opened, according to a Merritt official, signaling a victory for builders of green properties who are contending with a terrible leasing market and tenants who are cutting back on expenses.

"This wasn't really a cost-saving measure. It was more about upgrading their corporate image," said Tim Jackson, the Cushman & Wakefield broker who handled the deal. "Because this is a European- based company, sustainability was pretty much assumed."

Atradius will take 21,000 square feet of office space alongside such companies as GE Capital and Grotech Ventures, a venture capital firm. Lou Boeri, who represented Merritt in the deal, said his company has at least three more tenants in talks to take more space at Schilling Green.

"There's no common thread as far as the business service [these companies] provide," Boeri said. "However, it says the flight to quality is pretty important to high-profile companies. They're all companies that are internationally recognized. You know GE. Their whole corporate look is behind sustainability."

There are other nearby green developments looking for tenants as well. The building at 217 International Circle in Hunt Valley is seeking LEED-platinum certification, and its owner, the Bunting Family Foundation, is seeking to lease 15,000 square feet of unused space, Jackson said.

"The reality there is, that wasn't developed for third-party leasing. It was a statement by the company, for their uses," he added. "They would never get a return on the investment if they tried to lease it at market. ... My sense is most of the new buildings over the last few years, they all tend to come out and peg silver LEED as their target. I doubt that they're meeting pro- formas on those, but I don't know if it has to do with the LEED or with the market."

But Boeri said Schilling Green "absolutely will exceed its pro- forma" earnings projections. And to hear Thomas Beckwith, Atradius's CFO, talk about the building, it doesn't sound like such a stretch.

"If you ever go to Hunt Valley, [Schilling Green is] one of the prettiest buildings there, from an architectural view," he said. "Our lease was expiring. It was the diamond in the whole setup."

Atradius, which has 3,600 employees in 42 countries, and does about $2 billion in business each year, is based in Amsterdam, but has 100 employees in Baltimore. The upgrade to Class A actually saved the company money, Beckwith said, because energy prices will be cut about 25 percent in its new LEED digs.

"LEED is the future," he said. "If it had been a cost issue, we probably would not have [moved to Schilling Green]. Our lease couldn't have expired at a better time. ... We struck such a good deal."