Someone Bought a Downtown Office Building
KBS Realty Advisors is going all in on the Mid-Atlantic, evidenced by the firm's $89M purchase of Harbor Point’s Thames Street Wharf from Beatty Development. (They're gonna need to learn how to boil crabs if they really want to go all in.)
The move comes after recent key hires for the firm locally, including former Clarion Partners managing director Marc DeLuca (above), who leads Eastern operations, plus the promotion of Stephen Close to market leader. And the investment spree may not be finished. (Investment: once you pop, you just can't stop...or was that Pringles?) Marc tells us the firm's strategy remains to "acquire high-quality assets in quality submarkets that are seeing signs of growth." KBS bought Gaithersburg’s 321k SF One Washingtonian Center last year.
He says KBS moved quickly to acquire the 261k SF Thames Street Wharf because of its quality tenants (86% leased to Morgan Stanley and Johns Hopkins Medicine) and upside of its location; a 650k SF HQ for Exelon, the likely future owner of DC electricity provider Pepco as of yesterday, is going up next door. CBRE’s Bo Cashman and Jonathan Beard repped Beatty in the sale of the 2010-vintage 1300 Thames St.
