JBG Smith Sells Walmart-Anchored Fort Totten Apartments For $87M

JBG Smith has sold Fort Totten Square, a 345-unit mixed-use property it developed with Lowe Enterprises in 2015.

LBX Investments paid $86.8M for the property at 5661 Third St. NE, according to documents posted Friday in the D.C. Recorder of Deeds. The Atlanta-based investment company, in partnership with Broadwill LLC, secured a $60.9M loan from Greystone Servicing Co. for the acquisition. 

“It's a great asset serving a really nice market in D.C.,” LBX founder and Managing Partner Phil Block told Bisnow. “We’re going to certainly invest additional capital and believe it's just going to be a great asset for us, and it serves the community really well.”

JBG Smith declined to comment. Lowe sold its interest in the property to JBG in 2015, a Lowe spokesperson told Bisnow. The Washington Business Journal first reported the sale.

The building has a 120K SF Walmart on the ground floor, one of two left in the District. Block said there is still “a lot of term” on the store’s lease, and LBX is working with them to make improvements “and make sure that they're a long-term tenant,” he said.

The building’s apartment units were 93.3% leased as of the end of June, according to JBG’s Q2 investor materials. Its 131K SF of retail was fully leased.

Block said LBX is in “growth mode.” 

“We're trying to make sure our downside is protected, but we're looking to buy nice assets in good, dense markets where there's growth opportunity,” he said. “And this certainly represented that. It's only a nine-year-old building ... We would love to find more opportunities like this.”

LBX owns two shopping center properties in the D.C. area — a Fair Oaks Mall parcel in Fairfax and a Warrenton Village property in Warrenton, Virginia.

JBG Smith has been consolidating its holdings in Arlington’s National Landing neighborhood around Amazon HQ2.

Last October, the REIT sold a development site near Nationals Park where it had planned to build more than 600 units across two phases. It has put 8001 Woodmont on the market, a 322-unit Bethesda apartment building that delivered in 2021.

UPDATE, SEPT. 23, 4:35 P.M. ET: This story has been updated to include Broadwill LLC's involvement in the acquisition.