Under Armour Inc. has signed a lease for expansion space near its headquarters in South Baltimore. According to a filing with the SEC, Under Armour on December 14 signed a lease for 138,198 square feet at the Overflo Public Warehouse Inc. property at 1450 Beacon Street in Baltimore.
According to the filing, the project will be broken down into three phases. The first phase, to include approximately 67,000 square feet of office and showroom space, could be ready for Under Armour as early as April 30, 2008. The second phase, approximately 40,000 square feet of office space, could take until Aug. 31. The final phase, approximately 31,000 square feet of office, showroom and retail space, is not expected to be completed until Nov. 30, 2008. The initial term of the lease runs six years from the rent commencement date of the third and final phase of the space following substantial completion of such space. The lease provides a renewal option for two periods of two years each.
Overall, Under Armour intends to use the premises as follows: 90,294 rentable square feet of office space, 40,904 square feet of showroom space and 7,000 rentable square feet of retail space. According to its 10-K, Under Armour's current corporate headquarters is 100,400 square feet.
According to the Baltimore Business Journal, Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. plans to buy the building from Overflo and spend about $14 million to renovate the structure in time for Under Armours initial move in spring 2008.
As part of the lease, Struever Bros. will apply for Enterprise Zone tax credits for the project, which could bring down the cost of the project and its rental rates. Struever Bros. could also seek tax increment financing for the project, a public financing measure that would allow the developer to fund the costs of roads and sewers and other upgrades through a special taxing district. Also known as a TIF, the measure would need to be approved by Baltimore City. Under the lease, however, UA would not be required to pay any additional taxes.
Documents included in the SEC filing also indicate Struever Bros. plans to build a bridge across the Key Highway extension linking the Overflo site to the Dawn Building at Tide Point where Under Armour currently has office space.
