PowerGeopak ignores GPK_PROJMGR_PROJECTDIR variable

In PowerGeopak 08.11.09.674, even though I can see that GPK_PROJMGR_PROJECTDIR is set to the proper directory when looking at the configuration variables, if I launch Project Manager, it completely ignores this and loads the last PRJ file I was in.  Has this variable been depreciated in SS3?  or is there an additional switch that needs to be set?  The goal is that a user should simply need to select a project when launching PowerGeopak, and not have to navigate to the correct location from inside Project Manager.