Ribbon Cutting for Liberty Exchange Business Community Means More Jobs, Space for Businesses to Grow

A crowd gathered outside of a new business community Thursday for a ribbon cutting ceremony that signified the completion of more than 100,000 square feet of retail and office space.

The new business space is part of the Liberty Exchange Business Community, a series of buildings on 40 acres of land near the intersection of routes 32 and 26 - the former location of Freedom Golf Center.

“This is a great project for us because the land has been zoned for industrial based use for almost thirty years,” said Larry Twele, director of economic development for Carroll County. “Now we actually have a project here that will provide more than 500 jobs for our residents, provide space for our existing businesses to grow into and for new business to come into the county.”

St. John’s Properties, who manages the buildings, announced in February that the Orthopaedic Associates of Central Maryland will become the first tenant in the complex that includes a 16,000 square foot retail project, a 25,000 square foot office building and a 61,000 square foot research and development/flex space project.

And additional tenants are already in the works.

“We are talking to several IT companies and actually we have one defense contractor who has expressed interest, a BRAC related defense contractor who has a large number of Carroll County employees who is interested in locating here,” said Jerry Wit, senior vice-president of marketing St. John Properties. “So we think we're off to a good start. It's very unusual to have a signed lease this early in the game.”

This is the first project in Carroll County for St. John’s Properties, who hopes that some of their tenants will relocate to the area.

"We did not have a presence in Carroll County,” said Wit. “We have 1,500 tenants, some of whom said, 'I have customers in Carroll County. What do you have in Carroll County?'  We didn't have anything. So we started looking for a location for one of our business parks.”

According to County Commissioner Doug Howard, the business complex has come at the right time.

“This is exactly what we need in this part of the county,” said Howard. “This project alone is slated to at full capacity be able to handle a little over 500 jobs, and generate about $800,000 in potential revenue in terms of income taxes and property taxes. It will be a big boost to the community and particularly to this local area.”