The move is a sharp departure from the Baltimore company’s trademark Power Plant entertainment concept but one experts say could be well-timed. A flood of defense contractors is looking to set up shop near Aberdeen Proving Ground under the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure Plan.

Cordish, which helped revitalize Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, is rehabilitating its Edgewater Village Shopping Center on Pulaski Highway. Across the highway, the Morris Weinman Co., of Pikesville is also breathing new life into a different shopping center. The shopping centers have been battered by the construction of newer, more vibrant shopping destinations in the area.

“The newer shopping center, with a better model, has certainly taken some of the play out of the site,” Harford County Economic Development Director James C. Richardson said.