This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet
A prominent Southwest D.C. office building that went into foreclosure six years ago and has since been marketed for sale as a residential conversion has found a buyer.
LNR Partners sold 1250 Maryland Ave. SW, an eight-story office building, to an unidentified LLC, documents posted this week in the D.C. Recorder of Deeds show.
Deed records show the property sold for $154.9M, but one of the brokers involved in the deal, JLL Senior Managing Director Matt Nicholson, told Bisnow that doesn't reflect the final sale price. He declined to comment further.
The Washington Business Journal reports that the buyer is Henderson Park, a London-based private equity firm, and a spokesperson for the firm told the publication it paid about $26M for the property.
JLL had marketed the 536K SF property as "optimally positioned for by-right residential conversion, expansion, and redevelopment," according to a marketing email the firm sent in July. The email said the property's tenants have vacated and it has been approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustments for conversion to 420 multifamily units and 70K SF of retail or other commercial space.
Lowe, a Los Angeles-based developer that has completed another adaptive reuse multifamily project in Southwest D.C., was behind the rezoning proposals for the Maryland Avenue building, the Washington Business Journal reported in July. But it isn't clear if Lowe is connected to the entity that has now bought the building.
The building, part of the Portals Complex, was developed by Republic Properties in 1992. Republic lost the building to foreclosure in 2017 with $162M in outstanding debt, and it sold at an auction to LNR for $84M, the WBJ reported at the time.
Lowe, eMoney Advisors and LNR didn't respond to requests for comment.
SALES
Bell Partners has acquired a 439-unit apartment community in Alexandria, the Greensboro, North Carolina-based investor announced. It didn't disclose the sale price, and it hasn't yet appeared in public records, but the property last sold for $180M in 2019 to Starwood Real Estate Investment Trust.
The five-story property was developed in 2018 and branded as The Thornton, but the new buyer says it is rebranding it as Bell Old Town. At 751 Thornton Way, it sits on the banks of the Potomac River on the southern end of Old Town Alexandria. It is 3 miles south of the site where Monumental Sports plans to build a $2B arena and entertainment district for the Capitals and Wizards, a plan announced two days after this sale.
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United Therapeutics has agreed to a land swap with Montgomery County in which it will acquire a 3.8-acre site at 1200 Spring St. in Silver Spring to build a new organ production facility, the WBJ reported Friday. It hasn't detailed its plans, but the site's zoning allows for up to 831K SF. The site has been used for county parking and other operations, and as part of the swap, United Therapeutics agreed to build a replacement garage for the county on land the company owns. The drugmaker is headquartered next to the new site at 1000 Spring St. The county will acquire a 9-acre site elsewhere, and no money will change hands, the WBJ reported.
MILESTONES
Hoffman & Associates this week revealed the name, design details and renderings for a 126-unit condo project in West Falls Church. Branded as The Oak at West Falls, the building has units ranging from one-bedrooms to three-bedrooms and a host of amenities: a fitness center, pet spa, indoor lounge, bike storage and two outdoor terraces. It also has 23K SF of ground-floor retail space and 14K SF of arts and civic space. The project, designed by SK+I Architecture, is scheduled to launch sales early next year and deliver later in the year.
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Grosvenor completed construction on an athletic facility for the British International School of Washington at 3300 Whitehaven St. in Georgetown, it announced this week. It agreed to build the facility as part of a 280-unit multifamily project on two parcels it acquired in 2020 from BISW and Georgetown University.
LEASES
Fortunoff Backyard Store signed an 18K SF lease at the Crossroad Place shopping center in Falls Church, Commercial Observer reported. The 340K SF retail property at 3516 S. Jefferson St., anchored by a Giant grocery store, has been owned by Levin Properties since the firm developed it in 1964. Along with the outdoor furniture retailer, the property also signed a 2,100 SF lease with Charleys Cheesesteaks and Wings.
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Healthcare Legal Solutions signed a 15K SF lease at a Tishman Speyer-owned office building at 1919 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Commercial Observer reported. The firm is moving and expanding from its 9K SF office down the street at 2001 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Newmark’s Gary Cuadros and David Hardcastle represented the tenant in the lease, and Tishman Speyer was represented in-house by Dan Dooley and Colin Fay.
CORRECTION, DEC. 20, 1:50 P.M. ET: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the buyer of the 1250 Maryland Ave. SW property. This story has been updated.
