This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet

A 179-unit senior affordable housing expansion in Columbia Heights secured financing yesterday, according to deed records and confirmed by a D.C. Housing Finance Agency spokesperson. 

Developed by NCBA Housing Development Corp., the Carl F. West Estates will be a $134.4M addition to an existing affordable senior housing property, the Samuel J. Simmons NCBA Estates, on 14th Street between Harvard and Girard streets. 

The development secured $64M in bonds from DCHFA, $49.6M from D.C.’s Housing Production Trust Fund and $49M in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity, according to a DCHFA spokesperson. 

The development was one of nine affordable developments to receive a portion of $66M from the Housing Production Trust Fund, announced in March 2021. Of its 178 planned units, 142 will be reserved for residents making at or below 50% of the area median income, according to a release at the time. 

LEASES

Law firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP signed a lease to move from Georgetown to The Wharf, the project's developers announced Thursday. The firm is moving into one of The Wharf's Phase 2 office buildings at 670 Maine Ave. SW, taking the full fifth and sixth floors and half of the seventh. With the move, it is shedding 42K SF from its prior footprint, the Washington Business Journal reported.

The firm is moving from MRP’s waterside Washington Harbour building at 3050 K St. NW, where Kelley Drye has a 107K SF lease that expires in 2025. Relocation is slated for late 2025, according to the release. CBRE’s Amy Bowser brokered the deal on behalf of The Wharf's co-developers, Hoffman & Associates and Madison Marquette. 

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Health insurance provider CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield shrunk its footprint to less than a third of its prior space when it renewed its lease in NoMa, Bisnow first reported Thursday. The company signed a 62K SF renewal at 840 First St. NE, downsizing by 140K SF. Publicly traded REIT Office Properties Income Trust owns the 245K SF property, and it alluded to the lease reduction in its last earnings call. 

SALES

Peterson Cos. purchased a 402-unit Rockville multifamily property, the second phase of Huntington at King Farm, according to a press release from CBRE. An entity called King Farm Apartments PH 2 LLC — which the Washington Business Journal reports is an affiliate of German asset management company The DWS Group — sold the property built in 2000 for $135.5M on Sept. 12, according to Montgomery County land records. The units, 165 of which are townhomes, are 95.5% occupied. 

CBRE’s mid-Atlantic multifamily investment team represented the seller and CBRE’s mid-Atlantic debt and structured finance team provided financing for the buyer, according to the release.

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Acento Real Estate Partners purchased two Maryland apartment properties totaling 194 units, KLNB announced in a press release. The Towne Crest and Chelsea Park buildings in Gaithersburg sold for $21M and $16.5M, respectively, according to Montgomery County land records. Acento plans to conduct extensive renovations and add amenities, the release said. 

Property records show the seller was Spring Street Realty. KLNB’s Rawles Wilcox, Jared Emery and Dutch Seitz represented Acento in the deal. 

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TF Cornerstone purchased a 250K SF office building in Reston, 1881 Campus Commons, for $25M. The property, located near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station, was previously owned by TA Associates Realty, which acquired it in 2015 for $65M, according to Fairfax County property records. TF Cornerstone also owns two office buildings at 1900-1902 Campus Commons Drive, which are slated for infill development on their parking lots, per the Washington Business Journal. The developer plans to combine all three properties into an “18-acre urban campus with modern spaces and amenities,” according to a press release. 

PERSONNEL 

Coakley Realty hired Petch Gibbons as a commercial sales and leasing agent focused on the D.C. and Northern Virginia market. The local firm has been serving Montgomery County since its founding in 1989, but it hopes to use Gibbons’ hire to expand its full-service approach to the D.C. market, according to the press release. It said Gibbons has represented over 3.5M SF for tenants and owners — with clients including Merrill Lynch and the National Children’s Museum — and that he was most recently at Summit Commercial, where he served as senior counsel.

CORRECTION, OCT. 3, 9:15 A.M. ET: This story has been amended to correct the unit count proposed for the Carl F. West Estates.