Nestlé To Anchor Long-Vacant Rosslyn Skyscraper

Since Monday Properties delivered 1812 North Moore St. in 2013, the region's tallest tower has sat vacant. Now, after four years, the building has finally landed its first tenant.

Nestlé will relocate its U.S. HQ from California to the Rosslyn tower, the Washington Business Journal first reported.

The company will occupy 206k SF on floors 27 through 35, with the ability to expand to more than 250k SF. The 35-floor, 390-foot-tall building has a total of 537k SF of office space.

Nestlé narrowed its search in November to 1812 North Moore and Comstock's 1900 Reston Metro Plaza. CBRE's Lou Christopher and R. Todd Doney assisted the company in its search. 

Virginia is giving the company $10M in economic incentives as part of the deal, with another $6M coming from Arlington County. 

The Switzerland-based company currently has its US HQ in Glendale, Calif., in a 380k SF lease that expires in 2021. Nestlé will invest $39.8M to move its HQ and estimates it will create 748 new jobs. 

Monday Properties had spent three years focusing on finding an anchor tenant of more than 100k SF to fill the vacant building, which CEO Anthony Westreich has admitted it delivered at the wrong time. Last summer it broadened its search to consider smaller tenants that would fill three to five floors and build momentum in the building. 

“The magnitude of securing one of the most widely recognized corporate brands in the world reinforces our initial strategic business plan which was to develop an office project that would attract prestigious corporate tenants to occupy what is arguably the highest quality designed office project in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area," Monday Properties president and COO Tim Helmig said in a release. 

The deal represents a huge win not just for Monday Properties, but for Rosslyn and all of NoVa, which has been stuck with an office vacancy hovering around 20%.

“Monday has been bullish on the market and always had that belief and that conviction that Rosslyn can be a premier location for top-tier companies like Nestlé, and ultimately that’s coming to bear,” Rosslyn BID president Mary-Claire Burick said. “The great news is this will really start to accelerate positive trends. We’ve been seeing good leasing momentum and this will continue to accelerate that.”  

Burick said two of the company's priorities were finding a building with a sense of place and visibility, plus a location where they can access and retain top talent.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe credited the move to the state’ education system and its skilled workforce, and he said it will help create momentum in the region.

“It’s an exciting time for all of us,” McAuliffe said. “This was started before sequestration, then sequestration hit. This was all part of what we talk about diversifying the new Virginia economy.”  

McAuliffe said he thinks the state got a great deal with the $10M incentives package, and he said he is constantly negotiating with big companies about coming to Virginia.  

“This is one successful deal but there are 50 behind this we’ve been working on that didn’t make sense for us,” McAuliffe said. “We chase everything, we’re very aggressive. I’m on the phone all day recruiting businesses, but when you get to the final negotiations it may not make sense for us, that’s okay we walk away or they walk away.”