This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet: Falls Church Marriott Lands $40M Refinancing
A 395-room Marriott hotel in Falls Church locked in a refinancing deal this week.
Lakewood Hotel Group, the owner of the Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park, refinanced the 16-story property for $40M, Berkadia Managing Director Brian Gould announced on LinkedIn Thursday.
Bridge Investment Group provided the loan, brokered by Gould and Berkadia Senior Director Lindsey deButts, Gould said in his post.
Marriott completed an $11M renovation of the hotel in December 2022, Lodging Magazine reported, including a renovated lobby, a modernized fitness center and a new restaurant and cocktail lounge.
Gould told Bisnow the hotel's performance has benefited from the renovation. He said his team started talking to lenders in the fall during an "undoubtedly challenging" time for the commercial real estate market.
"But when lenders took the time to understand the hotel’s momentum coming out of the renovation, combined with experienced sponsorship and an inside-the-beltway location, we were pleased with the refinancing outcome," he said in a statement.
Lakewood purchased the property at 3111 Fairview Park Drive from Annapolis-based Thayer Lodging Group for $52M in November 2019, the Washington Business Journal reported at the time, for $40M less than it sold for a decade prior.
LEASES
New York City-based custom menswear designer Proper Cloth signed a 4,700 SF ground-floor retail lease at Marx Realty’s The Herald office building. The lease is for a 10-year term in Marx’s repositioned 114K SF property at 1307 New York Ave., near McPherson Square. The building was originally constructed in 1923. The Herald location is Proper Cloth’s first D.C. showroom. The brand has two showrooms in New York City, one in Midtown and the other in SoHo, according to its website.
JLL’s Ken Patton and Tucker Farman represented Proper Cloth, and Avison Young’s William Stern, Eli Barnes and Lauryn Harris represented Marx Realty.
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Climate change government affairs firm Boundary Stone inked a 9K SF lease in the heart of Penn Quarter. The firm is moving into Douglas Development’s 999 E Street NW, home to a Hard Rock Cafe, where the developer is building out 50K SF of spec suites expected to deliver in the third quarter. Boundary Stone's current office is at 1001 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, according to its website.
JLL’s Evan Behr, Mac Hall and Meghan Murray represented Douglas Development, and Savills’ Ken Biberaj, Danielle Ferrari and Wendy Feldman-Block represented Boundary Stone.
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Pickleball and table tennis company Joola is planning to move its headquarters to North Bethesda. The company signed a 35K SF lease at Federal Realty Investment Trust’s Pike & Rose, planning to move from its Rockville location in late 2024.
Joola will join Choice Hotels International and Sodexo at the 276K SF building at 915 Meeting St., which is approaching 80% leased, according to Federal Realty’s release. In addition to the headquarters, Joola’s footprint will include its first retail space on the building’s ground floor and a pickleball studio.
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Veteran Ventures Capital announced it is moving its corporate headquarters from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Tysons. The veteran-led and -owned venture capital firm is looking to be closer to its target investment market: small, veteran-led national security contractors, the Washington Business Journal reported. The firm is set to move into The Meridian Group's The Boro.
MILESTONES
Longfellow Real Estate Partners has delivered 30K SF of move-in-ready lab space at its office-to-lab conversion in Rockville. The Boston-based company acquired One Preserve Parkway, a seven-story, 191K SF property, in the summer of 2022, its first in the suburban Maryland life sciences corridor.
The new space is divided into two 15K SF labs on the building’s second floor. The five upper levels total 115K SF of lab-ready space, according to the developer, but they haven't been converted to labs. Longfellow also updated the project’s amenities, including its tenant lounge, outdoor seating and on-site café.
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A former AutoZone and its adjacent parking lot along the H Street corridor is being marketed for lease after initially being proposed as a multifamily redevelopment. Retail brokerage Dochter & Alexander distributed marketing materials for the property at 1207 H St. NE this week, the Washington Business Journal first reported. The advertisement says the 8,700 SF retail space and 40-spot parking lot are immediately available.
WestMill Capital Partners had been moving through an approval process for a 210-unit apartment building with 11K SF of retail with the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment, UrbanTurf reported.
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Reston-based DBI Architects has been acquired by Atlanta-based architectural and engineering firm GreenbergFarrow. GreenbergFarrow announced its acquisition of the architecture and interior design firm, founded in 1973, this week. According to the announcement, DBI has completed projects for federal government agencies, corporations, schools, technology firms and the hospitality industry, and it is expanding into multifamily and mixed-use.
FINANCING
Olshan Properties received a long-term loan extension for the Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, the New York-based company announced this week. With the new financing, its previous 50-50 partner in the mall, Taubman Centers, is giving up its ownership, the Washington Business Journal reported. In November, the pair missed an extended payoff deadline on securitized loans totaling $239M tied to the mall, the WBJ reported.
Olshan said in a release it would take over management of the 1.6M SF property, beginning what the company called a “new era of strategic planning and rejuvenation for the iconic mall.”
PERSONNEL
The D.C. Business Improvement District Council has selected a new director. Colleen Hawkinson was the inaugural executive director of the Dupont Circle BID, where she led the acquisition of $30M to construct the Dupont Plaza and Streetscape project.
She now heads the urban planning and economic development consulting firm she founded in 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before that, Hawkinson was a strategic planning branch manager at the District Department of Transportation for 16 years. Hawkinson started as BID Council director on Wednesday. The DC BID Council, founded in 2009, represents D.C.’s 12 BIDs.
CORRECTION, APRIL 15, 10:30 A.M. ET: A previous version of this story misidentified the location of Veteran Ventures Capital’s lease. It has been updated.
