A joint venture between Johns Hopkins insitutions reached a deal to acquire the former Zurich Insurance Co. property in Hampden to consolidate various functions across its portfolio of Baltimore City properties.
The venture, between Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System, is expected to close for an undisclosed price March 31. The property at 3910 Keswick Road is assessed at $23.5 million and is less than a half-mile from the university’s Homewood campus.
The university and health system will use the two-building, 415,000-square-foot complex for their financial, data processing and administrative functions. The university is the region’s largest employer with 31,900 workers, while the health system ranks third with 18,600 people on its payroll.
“The property’s location, layout, infrastructure and amenities made it a very attractive facility for both Johns Hopkins institutions,” James T. McGill, the university’s senior vice president for finance and administration, said in a statement.
It’s the second major purchase this year for Hopkins, which paid $12.5 million in May for a Charles Village site which was to be developed into condominiums by Baltimore’s Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. The university — on its own rather than with the health system — bought that property in the 3200 block of St. Paul Street for future development.
The Zurich property has been on the market for more than a year. As the Baltimore Business Journal first reported in November 2008, Zurich was trying to sell the property in connection with its move from Baltimore City to new space in Owings Mills. The financial services provider has since relocated its 600 employees to that new site in the Red Brook Corporate Center.
The property at Keswick Road and 40th Street is adjacent to the Rotunda shopping center and includes 1,500 parking spaces, a cafeteria, meeting and classroom space.
“The more we looked at both our future needs and what we’re paying now to operate in leased and owned space throughout the metro area, the clearer it became that buying this property made good economic sense for both entities,” Ronald Werthman, chief financial officer for the health system, said in a statement.
The facility will be filled in over time as leases expire at other Hopkins properties, which it did not disclose.
The university and health system are separate corporations but have combined space in seven centers across the region for combined efforts.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009,
Baltimore Business Journal – by Daniel J. Sernovitz Staff
