This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet: CIM Sells Rent-Controlled Adams Morgan Building
CIM Group has sold a 1920s-era, 276-unit apartment building in upper Adams Morgan for almost $10M less than what it paid a decade ago.
D.C.-based Bernstein Management Corp. and New York-based Tryline Capital paid $64M for 1629 Columbia Road, according to D.C. property records. The seller, Los Angeles-based CIM Group, purchased the property in 2013 for $73.6M.
The rent-controlled building sits near the intersection of 16th Street Northwest and Columbia Road and has large unit sizes and an appealing suite of amenities, according to a Bernstein press release.
“We are pleased to make it the 25th rent-controlled building in our portfolio and to be kicking off a new relationship with Tryline Capital,” Bernstein Senior Vice President of Investments Terra Weirich said in a statement.
The acquisition is Bernstein’s first since buying the 245-unit The Shay last June. CIM Group sold another D.C.-area apartment complex in March, offloading the 1,180-unit Mason at Van Dorn Alexandria for more than $200M in March.
SALES
Ashburn, Virginia-based SAK Developers acquired a 142-unit extended-stay property in Tysons. The deal for the Staybridge Suites Tysons-McLean at 6845 Old Dominion Drive was arranged by Atlanta-based Hunter Hotel Advisors, which announced the sale this week. The seller was Atlanta-based Noble Investment Group, which acquired the property in 2017 for $29.5M.
The price SAK paid wasn't disclosed, and the sale has yet to appear in property records. The property is SAK’s second D.C.-area hotel acquisition in the last few months after the company purchased a 154-key Hampton Inn & Suites at National Harbor in March.
MILESTONES
The renovation of the former WMATA headquarters next to Capital One Arena held a topping-out ceremony on Friday. A joint venture of Rockefeller Group and Stonebridge is undertaking a $375M repositioning of the 1970s-era property, which includes adding three stories totaling 100K SF and carving out 15K SF of ground-floor retail. The property is about 50% leased. International law firm Crowell & Moring signed a long-term deal for 199K SF.
The project broke ground last June with Clark Construction as the general contractor. Since then, crews have placed mo 747 tons of structural repositioning steel, 3,700 cubic yards of concrete, 1,073 tons of overbuild steel on top of the existing structure and removed over 9,800 tons of debris, according to a release. Pickard Chilton planned the redesign, and the architect of record is Kendall Heaton Associates.
PERSONNEL
Chesapeake Real Estate Group, a Baltimore-based development company, has brought on a new president as it aims to ramp up its acquisitions. CREG hired Gene Parker to take helm of a new effort to acquire up to $250M of value-add office, retail and industrial assets, the firm announced in a release. Parker comes to the company after 26 years with Continental Realty Corp., serving as president for the last 10 years.
In conjunction with the announcement, CREG said its founder, Jim Lighthizer, who serves as the firm’s managing partner and principal, will transition to the role of CEO. CREG is looking to buy assets for between $3M and $20M with at least 50% occupancy, with an emphasis on purchasing below replacement cost.
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Horning, a 66-year-old D.C.-based multifamily developer, has hired Stephanie Liotta-Atkinson as chief operating officer and general counsel, the firm announced this week. Liotta-Atkinson comes to Horning with a decade of development experience in the D.C. market. She was most recently chief operating officer at Bethesda-based MidCity and before that served as vice president and general counsel at The Menkiti Group.
In her new role, she is set to spearhead the strategic and operational direction of Horning's property management, compliance, human resources and marketing departments, while providing legal guidance and oversight.
FINANCING
Ford’s Theatre announced it received a $10M gift for the construction of the Frances and Craig Lindner Center for Culture and Leadership expansion project underway. The donation is the largest private donation in the institution’s history, the theater said in a release. The expansion of the theater’s footprint on 10th Street NW is set to include a flexible event space, two multipurpose studios and a terrace. It is expected to open in the fall. The campaign has raised 85% of its construction costs, per the release. The theater, infamous as the location of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, reopened its doors to the public in 1968.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Viva White Oak, a multibillion-dollar project in Silver Spring that has failed to move forward for over a decade, is set to break ground in 2025 after Baltimore-based developer MCB Real Estate was chosen as its new developer, according to a press release Thursday. The 280-acre campus next to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is approved for 12M SF of mixed-use development, with an emphasis on life sciences and housing. Its previous developer was Percontee, which got approval for the massive project but never moved forward with it.
