Vornado Still Considering Selling Off DC Assets
NY-based Vornado is still considering spinning off its holdings in the District and its environs into a separate REIT, an idea the company first broached last year.
Steve Roth, Vornado’s CEO, touched on the potential portfolio spinoff and several other topics during last week’s earnings call. The DC market has improved since the idea was first raised in April 2015, but weaknesses remain that are dragging down the company’s performance in the District, GlobeSt reports.
Among the drains on the REIT’s bottom line is Skyline in NoVa, a 100-acre mixed-use corporate park with more than 2.5M of office space, half of which sits empty. On the positive front, Vornado has found success in its efforts to turn Crystal City into a tech hub, with the company signing 1.1M SF of office leases in the city last year.
Vornado also announced it will move forward with a 335k SF trophy office project at 1700 M St NW. Additional area projects on tap from Vornado include a full modernization of the Crystal Square 3 office building, which will be rebranded as 1770 Crystal Drive. [GS]
