This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet: Clarion Partners Hands Chinatown Office Building To Lender

Another major commercial real estate investor has turned over the keys of a D.C. office building to its lender.

Voya Investment Management has taken ownership of The Portrait Building at 701 Eighth St. NW via a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure transaction, which was posted in D.C. deed records Friday. The transfer was valued at $33.3M. 

Clarion Partners bought the eight-story, 149K SF building in 2013 for $95.5M with a $59.1M loan from HSBC Bank, property records show. Voya provided a $41M loan in June 2020. 

New York-based fund manager Clarion Partners, which has an office in the building, according to its website, didn't respond to a request for comment. Voya Investment Management declined to comment.  

Walmart moved its government affairs office from the property in favor of an office in Navy Yard in 2022. A source involved with the deal told Bisnow earlier this year that a homicide in front of the building was part of the reason it relocated.

Architecture firm DLR Group also has an office at the Portrait Building, according to its website.

SALES

Lender JPMorgan Chase took control of a 50-year-old Georgetown office building after casting the winning bid at a foreclosure auction earlier this month. Bisnow first reported the news. JPMorgan acquired The Foundry at 1055 Thomas Jefferson St. NW from JBG Smith for $22.3M, documents filed with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds show.

The JBG Cos., the predecessor to the Bethesda-based REIT, purchased the 256K SF office building through a joint venture fund in 2014.

MILESTONES

Enterprise Community Partners is expanding its faith-based housing effort to Montgomery County, the affordable housing nonprofit announced. Its latest goal is to create 750 units of affordable housing on underused land owned by faith-based organizations in Baltimore and Montgomery County. Enterprise received $385K in funding from Montgomery County and $200K from the Truist Charitable Fund for its effort.

The nonprofit's faith-based development initiative has been underway since 2006 and has helped preserve or create 1,500 affordable homes and one community-based health clinic in the mid-Atlantic, according to a news release.

The new owner of a 152K SF office building near the Farragut North Metro station is planning on doubling down on the asset with a renovation. Taicoon Property Partners purchased the property at 1899 L St. NW from BlackRock for $26.7M, the Washington Business Journal reported last month. Stream Realty, which represented the buyer, announced the sale and plans for revamp this week. Planned renovations include an updated facade, upgrades to restrooms and common areas, redesigned retail storefronts and overall modernizations.

Stream’s Charlie Smiroldo and Matt Pacinelli represented the buyer, and Eastdil Secured’s Collins Ege and Bradley Allen represented the seller. 

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The National Park Service approved demolition plans for Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, it announced this week. Formerly home to Washington, D.C.’s NFL team, the property hasn’t hosted a professional team full time since 2017 when D.C. United left for Audi Field.

The 174-acre site on which the stadium sits is eyed for a mixed-use neighborhood — as well as a potential replacement stadium that could attract the Washington Commanders. Legislation to hand control of the property from NPS to the District, which would allow those plans to move forward, passed the House in February. 

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The federal government announced that it plans to dispose of a 141K SF federal office building next to the Tidal Basin. The Liberty Loan Building at 401 14th St. SW, built as a temporary structure during World War I, has housed the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service since 1919. Those employees are set to move into the U.S. Mint Headquarters at 801 Ninth St. NW in spring 2025.

PERSONNEL

PRP Real Estate Investment Management hired Matt Serenius to lead a new multifamily investment push as its multifamily director, Bisnow first reported. Serenius comes to PRP from Swedish investment firm Akelius, where he served as a vice president for nearly nine years, growing its U.S. residential portfolio to a $1B business.