This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet
More than a decade in the making, the redevelopment of Georgetown’s West Heating Plant broke ground on Wednesday.
The project at 29th and K streets NW, branded as the Four Seasons Private Residences, will consist of a 70-unit condo building and a 1-acre public park. It is being built by The Levy Group and The Georgetown Co.
The path to development has been fraught with hurdles including a lawsuit from the D.C. Preservation League, plus required zoning amendments and approval from the D.C. Commission of Fine Arts. The project received its final approval in July from the Old Georgetown Board.
The Residences was designed by architect Sir David Adjaye, who was also behind the design for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.
Adjaye spoke at the ceremony along with The Levy Group CEO Richard Levy, Mayor Muriel Bowser and former Mayor Anthony Williams.
LEASES
Artificial intelligence company Babel Street signed a 10,200 SF lease at Comstock’s 1900 Reston Metro Plaza at the Reston Station development. The 16-story tower is located within a rapidly developing area near the Wiehle-Reston East metro station, also home to tech companies like Google, ICF, Neustar and SolarWinds. JLL’s Jay Farmer and Chuck LaRock represented Babel Street in the deal. Comstock represented itself.
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Sprouts Farmers Market, a grocery and organic food store, signed a 26K SF lease in Manassas’ 250K SF Manafort Plaza shopping center. Finmarc Management owns the shopping center.
It is the first Sprouts store in Prince William County and the second in Virginia. Sprouts operates nearly 400 stores in 23 states across the U.S. Larry Hoffman and Bryan Davis of H&R Retail represented the landlord.
SALES
Philadelphia-based developer Post Brothers bought a 300K SF West End office building at 2100 M St. NW for $66.77M from an affiliate of Alliance Bernstein, the Washington Business Journal first reported. The firm entered into the D.C. market in 2022 when it bought two Dupont office buildings from JBG Smith for $200M. It is looking for approval to convert those properties to residential with more than 500 units.
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JBG Smith sold an 80% interest in its own 3-year-old headquarters building, the REIT revealed in its first-quarter earnings release Tuesday. The deal valued the Bethesda property at 4747 Bethesda Ave. at $245M, and it sold the share for $196M, realizing a $40M gain on the sale.
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MILESTONES
The Ox Hill Cos. revealed plans for the first phase of The Ox Fairfax, an arts and entertainment complex, expected to reach 1M SF. The plans introduced to Fairfax’s Planning Commission and Fairfax City Council feature a 4,100-capacity concert venue and a 165-room hotel in the city’s downtown.
The entire development is set to feature multiple hotels, retail, bars and restaurants, art galleries and a green urban conservatory.
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A new Common co-living building opened Thursday at The Parks at Walter Reed campus. The building includes 60 pre-furnished units, 21K SF of ground-floor retail, a rooftop courtyard, coworking spaces, a library, a fitness center, a game room and a club lounge.
Hines, Urban Atlantic and Triden Development Group are behind the 3.1M SF mixed-use redevelopment of the historic military campus. The team said this latest building, Common Clover, is D.C.'s largest purpose-built co-living building.
PERSONNEL
Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Brian Hanlon will be the acting director of the Department of Buildings, an agency her administration created in 2022.
Hanlon served in D.C.’s public sector nearly a decade ago as the executive program manager at the Department of Real Estate Services from 2008 to 2010 and as the director of the Department of General Services from 2010 to 2015.
Directly before coming aboard the administration, Hanlon was the chief operating officer of product market management agency Luceque Global and chief strategy officer at pipe solutions company IOREX. He was a vice president at Skanska USA from 2015 to 2016.
The former acting director of the Department of Buildings, Ernest Chrappah, stepped down in March.
