This Week’s D.C. Deal Sheet: Carr Sells Downtown Office Building To GW
A Pennsylvania Avenue office building that was scheduled for a foreclosure auction this summer has instead been snapped up by a local university.
George Washington University purchased Carr Properties’ 11-story office building at 2001 Pennsylvania Ave. for $35M, the university announced Friday. It said the 161K SF property, built in 1990, is 67% leased.
The sale was also recorded in D.C. deed records Friday. The price is well below the $107.75M that Carr bought it for in 2014, deed records show.
Carr’s loan on the property had an outstanding balance of $65.8M as of June, when it was scheduled to be auctioned off at Harvey West Auctioneers, the Washington Business Journal reported at the time.
GWU's near-term plans are to use the property for swing office space for academics and administrators while assessing long-term uses, it said in its press release. Carr Properties will continue to manage the building while GW develops its long-term plan.
“This is a unique moment in the real estate cycle for the university to purchase this Class-A asset that supports our academic mission,” GW Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes said. “The institution is making a strategic investment into the future by taking an asset at a great value on historic Pennsylvania Avenue.”
The release says the acquisition would provide “immediate revenue and cash flow with strong returns” and reduce the university's reliance on its leased space, lowering operating expenses. It is GW's third acquisition downtown since 2022, and the university says the real estate plays will diversify its revenue streams, easing reliance on tuition while reducing expenses and providing income to its endowment.
LEASES
The Stacks, the mixed-use development across from Audi Field, announced two new operators coming to its first phase, which is set to open in early 2025. A new community gym concept from Balance Gym and Flex will take 10K SF, and coworking operator Launch Workplaces is planning to take 11K SF at the 1M SF development, according to a press release from the development team last week. The gym is slated to open in January, and Launch is slated to take occupancy in mid-2025. The Stacks is being developed by Akridge and National Real Estate Development. The first phase is set to total more than 1,100 units.
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Commercial real estate brokerage Transwestern has relocated its regional headquarters from one Bethesda office building to another. The firm has moved into just over 9K SF at Stonebridge’s 370K SF Avocet Tower, a block away from the Bethesda Metro Station. It had been located about 4 miles to the north at Capital Gateway at 6700 Rockledge Drive. The company was selected as the exclusive agency leasing team for the 22-story Avocet Tower last year.
This is the second regional office relocation for Transwestern in less than a year. In January, the company relocated its mid-Atlantic headquarters in downtown D.C., moving from one K Street building to another a few blocks away.
SALES
New York-based Osso Capital has purchased a 244-unit apartment complex in Manassas. CAPREIT and Principal sold Manassas Station Apartments, according to a Monday announcement from Berkadia, which represented the sellers and secured the financing for the acquisition. The property is at 9004 and 9205 Prince William St. The price wasn't disclosed. Berkadia’s Brian Crivella, Bill Gribbin and Yalda Ghamarian worked on behalf of the sellers. The sale closed in late October.
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Salt Lake City-based Bridge Investment Group purchased an 806-unit garden-style community in Herndon for $250M. The company acquired the 2000s-era Dulles Greene Apartments from Norfolk-based Harbor Group International at a price that works out to $310K per unit. The property is at the Innovation Center Metro station, one of the six Northern Virginia Silver Line stations that delivered in 2022. HGI had acquired the property with Image Capital for $193M in 2018.
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A partnership between New York-based firms Cohen & Steers and DLC acquired a 119K SF shopping center in Springfield, Virginia, the companies announced in separate press releases last week. The partnership acquired Springfield Commons, which is 78% leased. The price wasn't disclosed. Tenants include Pure Fitness, Old Navy, Pure Hockey and Staples, and the shopping center has a Home Depot that is separately owned. The releases say leasing is expected to hit 98% in the short term, given immediate lease-ups and soon-to-be-announced deals.
MILESTONES
Golden Eagle Group announced it has completed 12 leases totaling 145K SF over the past two years at its 3130 Fairview Park office property in Falls Church. The activity brings the 198K SF, eight-story property to 97.5% leased, Golden Eagle announced last week. Cushman & Wakefield’s Tim Summers, Will Thomas and Chloe Eyring lease the property on behalf of the landlord.
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The anchor tenant occupying more than half of Rosslyn's Central Place office building has executed an early termination with its landlord, CoStar Group. Business management consulting firm Gartner paid a $48M termination fee to the real estate data giant to vacate early, paving the way for CoStar to make its planned move to the property. CoStar purchased the 31-story Central Place for $339M in February for its new headquarters. Gartner has occupied around 350K SF of the 552K SF property since it delivered in 2018.
