Bisnow Scoop: New Record Price?
Folks, we don't plant these things just to promote our events. We're told a 17th Street office building is slated to blow past the $1,000/SF marker in the very near future. But if that puts you in the mood for our big DC State of Office summit, Tuesday at the Willard, well, what do you know: here's a link to signup!
Vornado's Mitchell Schear is speaking Tuesday, where we'll hear about his firm's efforts to transform Crystal City into a tech hub. But another property Vornado developed, 800 17th St, is making news. Owner PNC, which occupies a big chunk of the 365k SF building along with law firm Holland & Knight, has put the building on the market, and sources tell us the price tag is likely to reach as high as $400M—or over $1,100/SF. That would smash the previous high for a full stake in a building in DC, the $905/SF that Columbia Property Trust (then known as Wells REIT) paid for Market Square in 2011.
HFF is marketing the building, where PNC would lease back its space once a deal goes through. Prices regularly cross the $1,000/SF mark in NYC, but why in DC, where big new leases are few and far between? Sources tell us the institutional world is still gung-ho on DC, even as footprints for both the public and private sectors continue to shrink. And new or nearly new assets like PNC Place (the building delivered in 2010) that have stable GSA, law firm, or business services tenants in place will continue to be highly sought after. It should be noted that a 64% stake in a building across the street from PNC Place, 801 17th Street, sold for $947/SF earlier this year to a fund run by Morgan Stanley.
Someone's gotta lease these things to make those prices so big, right? We've just added Cushman & Wakefield DC chief Brian Dawson (here with colleagues Audrey Cramer and Bill Magner) to an already all-star cast of Carr Properties' Oliver Carr, MRP's Bob Murphy, JBG's Todd Rich, FCP's Erik Weinberg, Brookfield's Dave Bevirt, JLL's Evan Behr, Ezra's Ezra Weinblatt, Transwestern's Elizabeth Norton, architect Gavin Hughes Daniels, tech guru Peter Corbett, and Vornado's Mitchell Schear. The fun starts 7:30am Tuesday morning at the Willard—click here to sign up or for more info.
