Starwood Buys Office Building Near Amazon HQ2
Amazon's planned second headquarters continues to attract the interest of major investors to the National Landing area.
Newmark Knight Frank announced Friday it brokered the sale of Presidential Tower at 2511 Jefferson Davis Highway on behalf of the seller, Beacon Capital Partners. The building sold for $123M, according to CoStar information.
The broker's announcement did not include the buyer, but Commercial Observer reported that Starwood Capital Group acquired the building. It obtained $98.5M in acquisition financing from Société Générale and MetLife.
The 349K SF office building is 95% leased, NKF said. Soon, it will have a different address — Virginia approved Arlington's request to change Jefferson Davis Highway to Richmond Highway after a yearslong effort to rid the county of a major thoroughfare named after the president of the Confederacy.
Incentive Technology Group last month signed on for 50K SF at the building, moving from another Crystal City property.
Presidential Tower sits about a half-mile from the Crystal City Metro station. Amazon plans to move its first employees this year into office space leased from JBG Smith next to the Crystal City station, and the new buildings for its campus are planned to be constructed next to the nearby Pentagon City Metro station.
The deal follows a Pentagon City apartment building sale earlier this month to Polinger Co. for $228M, more than twice what the seller paid for it in 2009, providing an indication that Amazon is generating strong investor interest in the area.
"We saw a tremendous amount of interest in Presidential Tower given its location in National Landing, the future home of Amazon's second headquarters," NKF Executive Managing Director Jud Ryan said in a release. "The building offers an exciting opportunity to participate in the submarket's transformation from a government-dependent market to a vibrant, 24/7, tech-focused hub bringing at least 25,000 jobs."
Ryan represented the seller along with NKF's James Cassidy and Robert Griffin. NKF's Dustin Stolly, Jordan Roeschlaub, Joe Donato and Maury Zanoff arranged acquisition financing for the buyer.
UPDATE, MAY 17, 3:30 P.M. ET: The sale price previously attributed to Commercial Observer was incorrect. This story has been updated with the correct price.
