Bisnow Scoop: Top Site Snapped Up

With the construction flurry around DC, you might think all the good sites are taken. But one major site in Virginia has just been acquired by a big local investor, and industry experts are calling it one of the best in the region.

Bisnow has learned that Saul Holdings has purchased the Rosenthal Mazda dealership site at 750 N Glebe Rd in Ballston for $40M. (That's about 1,400 Miatas... not included.) Sources tell us the two-acre site at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and Glebe is one of the last big development sites to fall in the RB Corridor, since others are much smaller or in less desirable locations. 750 N Glebe doesn't have approvals in place, but the site lends itself to multifamily, sitting one block from the Ballston Metro and Ballston Common Mall, which Forest City is putting under a massive renovation. Cassidy Turley repped the sellers, Capital Automotive REIT.

Here's a look at what the future Ballston Mall will look like. Amazingly, all those people in the rendering are talking about the Rosenthal deal. Though Saul is a major landowner throughout the DC region, its only asset in the RB Corridor is the Clarendon Center, a large mixed-use project near the Clarendon Metro. Sources we spoke with say Saul may look to that property as a model, though it might be a while—the Rosenthal Mazda dealership has a lease in place until 2018. (Have you ever tried breaking your car lease? It ain't easy.)

The Ballston deal marks the second high-profile car dealership sale this summer, after Georgetown Day School purchased the former Martens (now Ourisman) Volvo/Volkswagen dealership on Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown. That property sold for $11.7M in June.