Former EagleBank CEO Sells Downtown D.C. Office Building For $6M Loss
The real estate development firm owned by former EagleBank CEO Ron Paul, who left the bank in 2019, sold a West End office building for $20.5M.
Ronald D. Paul Cos. sold the 57K SF building at 2121 Ward Place NW to a partnership led by an affiliate of D.C. real estate agency One Street, according to documents filed Monday with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds.
Paul's company paid $26.5M for the building in 2013, according to deed records. The six-floor structure, built in 1984, is known as the Duke Ellington Building for its proximity to the site where the famed jazz musician was born in 1899.
The property was sold to a trio of entities, with CSC Ward Place LLC, created by D.C.-area real estate agency One Street, purchasing just over 84% of it. Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp. Regional Vice President Christopher Channell, who partners with One Street, is named on the loan.
An executive at Ronald D. Paul Cos. declined to comment on the sale. Channell didn't respond to a request for comment.
One of the building's tenants is preparing to leave: nonprofit Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, which bills itself as the “nation’s largest trails organization." RTC has occupied the entire fifth floor, 9,600 SF, for 15 years. Chief Operating Officer Cindy Dickerson told Bisnow that the nonprofit plans to move to 2445 M St. NW and downsize its footprint.
A carrier annex for the United States Postal Service is also located at the building, according to USPS.com.
The West End building is at least the third property Ronald D. Paul Cos. has sold in the last three years. In May 2020 it sold a South Capitol Street development site for $31.5M. In December 2021, it sold the property at 2230 New York Ave. NE for $13.7M, deed records show.
Development, acquisition and investment firm Ronald D. Paul Cos. was founded by its namesake in 1987 and owns commercial and residential properties throughout the D.C. metro area.
Paul served as CEO of Maryland-based EagleBank, a company he founded, from its launch in 1997 through 2019. In August 2022, Paul was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for making false and misleading statements about taking insider loans from the bank between 2015 and 2018 and ordered to pay $521K in fines.
EagleBank was also charged by the SEC as well as the Federal Reserve Board for providing those real estate loans and failing to disclose them, and it agreed to pay $22.9M as a result of the violations. Some of those loans went to buildings in the Ronald D. Paul Cos.' portfolio.
