The U.S. Postal Service bought more than 20 acres in Anne Arundel County yesterday and plans to build a 200,000-square-foot mail distribution facility for the Baltimore area.
The Postal Service will be the first tenant in the 121-acre Hock Business Park, which the Hock Group is developing at Nursery Road and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Anne Arundel County.
"This is the first closing we've had," said J. Gary Lee of the Lee Organization, which is handing marketing and development for the project. "It'll be the kickoff for our park."
"It confirms our belief that the park is one of the most strategic locations in the Baltimore-Washington region," Joseph A. Burton, chairman of Joseph J. Hock Inc., said in announcing the sale.
Mr. Lee described the project as a state-of-the-art, automated mail center and said the postal service was looking specifically for a location near the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
"It's a very formidable development," he said. "It certainly affirms the value of the BWI hub as a critical area in the state's and the county's economic development program."
Hock Business Park is located near BWI a quarter-mile east of the facility Westinghouse Electric Corp. is building on Nursery Road.
Mr. Lee said the Hock Group, affiliated with Joseph H. Hock Inc., a supplier of highway materials and contract hauler, is negotiating with several other organizations that are considering building facilities at the business park.