JLL Replaces Cushman As Capitol Crossing Leasing Team
Capitol Crossing, the transformational project being built over a newly decked Interstate 395, has a new team tasked with attracting office tenants.
After signing just one tenant — the American Petroleum Institute, which inked a 75K SF deal in October — the Cushman & Wakefield leasing team at the helm of marketing the new offices has been replaced by JLL's leasing team of Doug Mueller and Evan Behr.
The duo plan to launch a new marketing campaign in the fall to help lease up just under 1M SF that is available across two buildings in Capitol Crossing. API is committed to 200 Massachusetts Ave. NW, which recently delivered. More than 300K SF in that building does not have a publicly committed tenant.
Next door, developer Property Group Partners is building the 559K SF 250 Massachusetts Ave., which is expected to deliver in roughly a year.
“To lease a project of this scale and magnitude is a once in a career opportunity,” Mueller said in a statement. “We look forward to bringing our expertise and fresh approach to Capitol Crossing and Property Group Partners. Our goal is not only to attract top tenants, but to build a new community and impact the city’s future.”
Three later phases of the project include two other office buildings, plus a hotel and apartment buildings. In total, the project encompasses 2.2M SF and is expected to cost at least $1.3B.
Behr and Mueller, among the most active leasing brokers in the District, have their work cut out for them at a time of unprecedented office space competition. At the end of Q2, D.C.'s vacancy rate was higher than it had been in five years as a record number of new office buildings opened, including 200 Mass.
While those numbers would typically portend an impending construction slowdown, D.C. continues to build. In the first half of 2018, D.C. was the third-most-active city in the U.S. for construction starts, with $4B worth of nonresidential projects starting construction between January and June.
