This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet
A 125-unit affordable redevelopment in Columbia Heights has landed a $25M loan from EagleBank and is slated to begin construction next month.
The project by Jonathan Rose Cos. and Somerset Development Co. at 1350 Fairmont St. NW will feature 125 affordable and senior units, according to a Wednesday press release from EagleBank, and it is designed to meet green building standards.
The building previously received a $1.85M pre-development loan from the D.C. Green Bank late last year, the Washington Business Journal reported.
The Fairmont Street property currently houses an 80-unit multifamily building. That building would be replaced by the 125-unit affordable project and an adjacent 197-unit market-rate building from Crescent Communities.
Construction on the affordable project is scheduled to begin next month. EagleBank’s Andrea Berkeley, Richard Koller and Nette Antehun assisted with the transaction.
SALES
Longfellow Real Estate Partners, one of the country's largest players in life sciences real estate, has entered the D.C. region, acquiring an office building in Rockville that it plans to convert to lab space, it announced this week. The sale, from an affiliate of Federal Capital Partners, closed for $42M, the Washington Business Journal reported.
The building at 1 Preserve Parkway is planned to host 191K SF of trophy space with an on-site amenity package and 30K SF floor plates, according to Longfellow. The firm cited the building's location along the I-270 corridor, a hotbed for life sciences development in Maryland, as a major draw.
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SRS National Net Lease Group arranged the sale of two D.C. retail assets totaling $9.2M, the firm announced Monday. In Georgetown, SRS represented The JCR Cos. in selling 1519 Wisconsin Ave. NW to JG Realty for $5.7M, property records show. In Adams Morgan, SRS represented an affiliate of May Riegler Properties in the $3.5M sale of 2321 18th St. NW to a private investor, according to property records.
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Willow Creek Partners has acquired a 189-unit apartment building from Baltimore-based Continental Realty Corp. for $50.1M, the seller announced Monday. The building, 101 North Ripley Apartments, is located along the I-395 corridor in Alexandria, near the intersection of Duke Street and South Van Dorn Street. CBRE's Bill Roohan, Robert Dean and Jonathan Greenberg represented the seller. Continental previously acquired the building in 2011 for $23M.
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Boston Properties sold an 11-building portfolio in Springfield to Finmarc Management for $127.5M, the buyer announced Thursday. The portfolio includes roughly 740K SF of flex office, industrial and data center space, per a press release. Located near I-95 and Fairfax County Parkway and Fort Belvoir, the buildings are 74% leased in aggregate, with more than half fully leased and occupied. Finmarc said it was drawn to the portfolio in part due to the record-low industrial vacancies in Northern Virginia.
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A joint venture between Electra America and AKA acquired a 152-room hotel in the West End, the firms announced Wednesday. The hotel at 1 Washington Circle was formerly owned by George Washington University. The JV, named Electra America Hospitality Group, is planning a $30M renovation before reopening the hotel next year.
Avistone, a California-based investor, has acquired the Courtyard Dulles Airport Herndon hotel for $19.2M from MCR Hotels, Bisnow reported Thursday. The 187-room hotel at 13715 Sayward Blvd. features a 24-7 business center, a fitness center and meeting space. Avistone Vice President of Lodging Investments Youngbin Park told Bisnow the hotel is poised to take advantage of the return of business travel and the long-awaited arrival of the Silver Line's second phase.
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NTT acquired 103 acres of land from Lerner Enterprises for data centers in Prince William County. The portfolio came with a $257M price tag, more than double what Microsoft paid in a similar deal last summer, Commercial Observer reported. The new campus will be NTT’s largest in North America.
LEASES
CareFirst, a not-for-profit backed by BlueCross BlueShield, signed an 80K SF lease at 6100 Merriweather Drive, part of The Howard Hughes Corp.’s Merriweather District. The lease brings the office building to 97% leased and reflects CareFirst’s hub-and-spoke office strategy.
Separately, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association signed a 64K SF lease at The Victor Building in D.C.'s East End. The building at 750 Ninth St. NW is owned by Brookfield Properties. Built in 2001, the building recently underwent a $14M renovation. CBRE’s Mark Klug, Carroll Cavanagh, Emily Eppolito and Dimitri Hajimihalis represented Brookfield. Lisa Konieczka, also of CBRE, and Savills’ Tom Fulcher, Julie Rayfield and Adam Brecher repped the new tenant, whose lease begins in 2024.
FINANCING
Billionaire philanthropist Dwight Schar acquired a 31% stake in Comstock Holding Cos., allowing him to join his son-in-law and Comstock CEO Chris Clemente as the two largest investors in the public company. As part of the new deal, Comstock Holding will manage assets — including Reston Station and Loudoun Station — for Comstock Partners, which is privately owned and founded by Schar and Clemente in 1999. Schar retired earlier this year from homebuilder NVR.
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JPMorgan Chase provided Urban Atlantic and Triden Development Group with $75.6M in construction financing to kick off a multifamily project at The Parks at Walter Reed, the developers announced this week. The Reynard, a 344-unit community, will be built adjacent to the Parks Marketplace development anchored by Whole Foods. The Reynard is designed with 11 live-work units with storefronts that face Georgia Avenue. In addition, the developers plan to make 26 units affordable for those making up to 80% of the area median income.
PERSONNEL
Yalda Ghamarian Howell is joining Berkadia's D.C. Metro investment sales team as a senior director, the firm announced Tuesday. Howell most recently was a senior vice president at CBRE handling multifamily transactions, and before that was at Kettler, per a press release. Howell has over 12 years of experience in commercial real estate, and before that earned a bachelor's degree in Property Management and Housing from Virginia Tech and a master's degree in Real Estate from Johns Hopkins.
