This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet
A Northern Virginia office building fully leased to Amazon Web Services has sold for $110M.
Tampa-based Vision Properties acquired the 270K SF building at 13820 Sunrise Valley Drive from Griffin Realty Trust. Progress Capital announced Thursday its partner, Brad Domenico, brokered a $60.5M acquisition loan for the buyer from Société Générale Corp.
AWS, which operates a massive data center footprint in nearby Loudoun County, signed the full-building Herndon lease in July 2019. The building's sale, first reported by Commercial Observer, comes after Griffin completed a $42M renovation of the property that was custom-designed for the new tenant.
The renovation added a new fitness center, conference facilities, a bicycle room, an outdoor dog park and a café to the building. The property has a 921-space parking garage with new electric vehicle charging stations.
In addition to sitting near Data Center Alley, the building is also directly across Route 28 from Dulles International Airport and a mile from the new Innovation Center Silver Line station.
“This is a high-quality, well positioned office product in a dynamic marketplace and a great investment," Domenico said in a statement.
SALES
Ernst Equities acquired the 94-unit Queens Park Plaza apartment property in Hyattsville for $16M, Transwestern announced Friday. Transwestern's Dean Sigmon, Robin Williams, Justin Shay and Michael D’Amelio represented the seller, Rockville-based Rimsi Corp., in the deal. The property was built in 1968, and Rimsi had owned and managed it for 40 years.
FINANCING DEALS
The D.C. Housing Finance Agency issued $43.1M in tax-exempt bonds and underwrote $40M of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity to preserve a 202-unit portfolio of affordable housing spread across Wards 7 and 8. The portfolio consists of 16 buildings constructed in the 1950s and 1960s in the Anacostia, Marshall Heights and Fort Dupont neighborhoods.
The financing comes after the residents formed a tenants association and exercised their Tenants Opportunity To Purchase Act rights to select National Housing Trust Communities and IBF Development to buy and renovate their properties. The developers also received $37.6M from D.C.'s Housing Production Trust Fund for the project.
***
Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital announced Thursday it arranged $93M in financing for Guardian Realty across eight separate deals for office, medical office and life sciences properties in the D.C. suburbs. The largest of the deals was a $26.1M bridge-to-permanent loan to finance an office-to-life sciences conversion in Germantown.
The next three largest were $16.4M, $15.5M and $14.2M deals to finance medical office buildings in Silver Spring, Fairfax and Rockville, respectively. Bellwether's Steve Shaw, Alec Jenkins, Chaz Wattles and Bill Wrench brokered the deals.
***
Douglas Development closed a $107M financing deal to begin construction on a 354-unit multifamily project in Takoma Park, it announced this week. The deal included $65M in debt from United Bank, Sandy Spring Bank and Metropolitan Bank, plus $41.6M in preferred equity from EB5 Capital. The developer in 2013 acquired the site at 6830 and 6896 Laurel St. NW for $17.5M from Washington Theological Union.
LEASES
Clyde's Restaurant Group signed a 12K SF lease at Reston Station's 1860 Reston Row Plaza to open a new restaurant named Ebbitt House, developer Comstock Partners announced Thursday. The concept will be a "stylish modern spin" on the group's Old Ebbitt Grill restaurant, representing the first expansion of the historic Downtown D.C. brand. Next Realty's George Galloway represented the tenant, and Studio K Creative and Grizform Design Architects are working with it on the branding and design of the restaurant.
PERSONNEL
John Sikaitis, a D.C.-based expert in commercial real estate data analytics, is departing Avison Young for CBRE. He joined Avison Young in 2019 as chief innovation officer after spending 15 years with JLL. At CBRE, he will serve as senior vice president of the firm's Platform division, helping offer data analytics and technology solutions to its clients.
***
D.C.-based nonprofit developer Wesley Housing has promoted Judith Cabelli to the role of senior vice president of real estate, it announced Monday. She spent 11 years with Wesley before leaving for a role in Fairfax County government in 2020, according to her LinkedIn page. She then returned to Wesley last year as director of real estate development. She will now fill the SVP role vacated by Kamilah McAfee, who became the organization's president and CEO in January.
