How Rosslyn Will Rock
In a word, retail. That's the view of a lot of gold-standard companies in the business of placing bets—and which have invested in Georgetown's Virginia sibling across Key Bridge.
Monday Properties president Tim Helmig has had a front-row seat for new retail offerings, like Heavy Seas Alehouse in his own 1501 Wilson, which has packed young professionals into its large space since opening a couple months ago; he says the building will welcome two additional retail tenants soon. Tim also says Monday will deliver a white tablecloth restaurant to 1812 N Moore. (Roundabout way of saying it's getting a good dry cleaner?) He told the crowd of 450 assembled at 1000 Wilson that the firm is trading paper with a few groups for the 8,500 SF space.
New Rosslyn BID chief Mary-Claire Burick laid out five reasons why her neighborhood is the place to be. No. 1? Access—five major roadways and three Metros nearby, Reagan 10 minutes away, as well as the biggest Capital Bikeshare in Arlington. (If you take bike to the Metro, Metro to the airport, and then drive to your destination, it's called a Full Ginsburg.) It's also a hub for global business, she says, with both startups and Fortune 500s planting roots. The burgeoning retail and culture scenes (through spots like Artisphere) are major factors, as well as a growing sense of community with 11,000 residents and 30,000 workers.
Thanks to projects like his firm's massive Central Place, JBG's Andy VanHorn says Rosslyn is becoming a spot that folks don't just inhabit from 9 to 5. With the nation's highest concentration of Millennials residing in the R-B Corridor, Central Place's 377 residential units and 25k SF of retail (to deliver in 2017) are about to turn what used to be a pedestrian-hostile environment on its side, Andy says. (All buildings will need steel reinforcements to handle the generation's ironic detachment.)
But hey, Rosslyn's still dominated by those big office buildings, right? And grand and interesting architecture sets Rosslyn apart from the rest of the region, Brookfield's Cy Kouhestani says. It's why the firm was able to quickly snap up a few subleases to backfill the 140k SF block FBR left at the IM Pei/James Freed-designed Potomac Tower. Brookfield's getting proactive in leasing the rest of the space with a new features like a rooftop terrace overlooking the Potomac, Cy says.
ASB Capital is a $5B fund with a reputation for finding great investments (developing and acquiring the hottest properties in Santa Monica, Hollywood, Meatpacking, SoHo, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Denver, and elsewhere), so when CEO Robert Bellinger describes his firm's $222M commitment to Rosslyn in buying the Sedona/Slate apartments, people listen.
Cardinal Bank is very much focused on Rosslyn, with five of the company's 30 branches in Arlington County. President Kevin Reynolds says Rosslyn's growth will hinge on creating a place people want to live and work, plus party and shop, too.
Penzance and its leasing chief Matt Pacineilli are helping usher in the new era by adding 40k SF of retail to a repositioned 1500 Wilson. Matt says gourmet sandwich shop Capriotti's has already signed on. (The audience got a sneak preview by being handed Capriotti's boxed lunches on the way out—much better treatment than VP Biden, who had to get in his motorcade and drive to Capriotti's, as you may have seen recently.)
Matt's colleague Peter Greenwald chairs the Rosslyn BID and gave an official welcome on behalf of a very united group of normally competitive owners and developers who all sit on his board.
Special thanks to Blake Grosch and Joe Leach of our sponsor RDM (right), from NYC, whom we snapped with Architectural Design and Consulting's David Chan and Carlyle's Jeff Wilde. RDM (Real Data Management) specializes in data services and software for landlords, investors, brokers, and managers to measure and re-measure space, which means money.
After the program, we ran into Moore & Associates' Justin Wilson (investment, development, and management) and Artemis Real Estate Partners' Adam Rashid (private equity). And yes, off to the right in the background is someone playing a guitar. He was one-half of our great jazz duo that played between speakers to keep everyone pumped. It was a grand experiment, and what we learned is that while the duo's very good and the audience liked them, our publisher/emcee needs to take conducting lessons.
