This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet
A new senior living community in Manassas is the first project to land funding from Virginia’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program.
Northern Virginia-based Aksoylu Properties landed $8.7M from the program for English Meadows, a newly constructed 88-unit, 105-bed facility. Nuveen Green Capital, which arranged the financing, announced the news in a press release this week. It said the full development cost was $34.7M.
C-PACE provides owners and developers with long-term, fixed-rate capital for green infrastructure, either for new construction or renovations. Virginia instituted its C-PACE program in 2022.
For English Meadows, the program provided funding for the property’s lighting, building envelope, HVAC, plumbing and roofing.
"The benefits from the energy efficiency improvements for this project are exactly why the Program was created and we are very pleased that Prince William County has been supportive of including C-PACE as an economic development incentive for their constituents," Virginia PACE Authority Executive Director Abby Johnson said in the release.
SALES
UDR has agreed to sell an Arlington apartment building, Crescent Falls Church, it said this week in its earnings release. The Denver-based REIT said it expects to close the $100M deal to sell the 214-unit mixed-use building a few blocks from the East Falls Church Metro station this quarter. The buyer wasn't disclosed.
LEASES
Biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced it will invest $300M to outfit a Rockville facility for manufacturing related to its cell therapy platforms. The UK-based company quietly took over a lease from another life sciences occupier last summer at Alexandria Real Estate Equities’ 9500 Medical Center Drive. AstraZeneca expects to bring 150 employees to the property. It already had a sizable presence in the area, with a 1.3M SF research and development campus in Gaithersburg. The company also leased a 198K SF industrial facility in Gaithersburg in December.
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A French restaurant is coming to JBG Smith’s office-to-residential conversion in National Landing, the Bethesda-based REIT announced in a news release this week. Bar Colline, from brothers Eric and Ian Hilton's H2 Collective, will take 5K SF on the ground floor of The Grace and Reva at 1900 Crystal Drive. The redevelopment of the two-tower complex is set to house 808 units and 40K SF of street-level retail. H2 Collective is also behind local eateries Chez Billy Sud, Cafe Colline, Parc de Ville, El Rey, Players Club, American Ice Co. and Brighton.
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An office building steps from the White House has a new minority owner. Spear Street Capital bought a stake in the 11-story Mills Building at 1700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW in a recapitalization play, the Washington Business Journal reported. The Klock family is the majority owner of the building. Originally delivered by Carr Cos. in 1966, Akridge expanded and renovated the property in 2022, adding three stories and taking it to 210K SF.
The size of Spear Street's stake isn't clear. A filing in D.C. deed records shows a $123.3M loan from German real estate bank Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG for the property, the WBJ reported.
MILESTONES
A senior living development in Chevy Chase got the green light from the Montgomery County Planning Board this week.
Developers Galerie Living, based in Atlanta, and D.C.-based Community Three are set to develop Corso Chevy Chase at the site of the former National 4-H Conference Center on Connecticut Avenue. The development is planned to include 287 independent living dwellings, 190 assisted living beds, 30 memory care beds and 5K SF of retail. The approval sets in motion plans to break ground in the fall, with delivery targeted for 2026.
PERSONNEL
The Montgomery County Economic Development Corp. has a new vice president of research and policy. Frankie Clogston is joining the team with over 20 years of experience in research and technical assistance in economic development and economic policy, MCEDC announced this week. Clogston was a vice president of knowledge management and development for the International Economic Development Council.
In her new role at MCEDC, Clogston will design and execute research projects and use data and stakeholder input to support county businesses’ economic growth.
