St. John Properties continues to build out its considerable portfolio in the Baltimore suburbs.

On Tuesday, the developer announced the imminent groundbreaking of a mixed-use project in Anne Arundel County that will contain 225K SF of research and development and flex space at full build-out. A joint venture with Reliable Contracting Co., the development will begin with a first phase comprising three speculative buildings of 33K SF each, expected to deliver early next year.

The Waugh Chapel Business Park, as it will be called, sits directly adjacent to the Waugh Chapel Town Centre, a retail-and-multifamily project anchored by a Wegmans in the unincorporated area of Gambrills. Located near Maryland state routes 3 and 175 and Interstate 97, Waugh Chapel Business Park sits 15 miles from Annapolis, 20 miles from Baltimore and 25 miles from Washington, D.C.

"Anne Arundel County has been among the most prolific commercial real estate markets in our portfolio for the past several years, and we are proceeding with approximately 100K SF of speculative development with tremendous confidence," SJP Senior Vice President of Leasing and Marketing Richard Williamson said in a statement. "We believe end-users from a wide array of industry sectors will gravitate to this business community."

The first three of the seven planned buildings in the development will be one story with 18-foot clearance heights. SJP has also initiated a similar R&D/flex project in Frederick in the past two weeks. In June, SJP won the national Developer of the Year award from NAIOP.

CORRECTION, DEC. 12, 3:45 P.M. ET: A previous version of this article misidentified the type of award St. John Properties won from NAIOP. This article has been updated.