This Week's D.C. Deal Sheet
A spec office development that delivered in Downtown D.C. in 2020 has landed an anchor tenant and traded hands — for less than the previous debt on the building — in a pair of major transactions this week.
Hines has acquired 1050 17th St. NW for $59.8M, deed records show, and it signed an agreement with law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP to lease 82K SF, the buyer told the Washington Business Journal.
Hines bought the 154K SF building from The Lenkin Co., which broke ground on the project in 2018 with $95M in financing from EagleBank. EagleBank also provided a $63M loan to Hines for its acquisition, deed records show.
The building was 10% leased prior to the deal with Davis Polk, which plans to move into the top five floors and penthouse. The law firm is relocating from 901 15th St. NW, a 35-year-old building owned by Northwestern Mutual.
The 3-year-old 17th Street building, sitting one block north of Farragut Square, benefited from the trend of tenants fleeing older properties for newer spaces that experts have said accelerated during the pandemic. It features floor-to-ceiling windows, a green plant wall in the lobby, a 4,200 SF fitness center and a 4,700 SF rooftop amenity space with a lounge, conference center and terrace.
CBRE's Tommy Cleaver, Dan Grimes, Stuart Kenny and Randy Harrell brokered the sale, which came out to about $388 per SF for the nearly brand-new building, on behalf of Lenkin. CBRE's Randy Harrell, Joe Coleman, Lara Nealon and Brittany Gosnell represented Hines in the lease.
Newmark represented Hines in the acquisition of the building and Davis Polk in the lease.
LEASES
Marx Realty has landed two new leases at the Downtown D.C. office building it acquired for $42M in April 2020 and then invested another $41.5M to renovate and rebrand as The Herald. The New York-based developer signed leases with the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors for 5K SF and FS Vector for 5,700 SF at 1307 New York Ave. NW.
JLL’s Evan Behr, Nathan Beach and Jeanette Ko represented Marx in these leases, but the landlord said in a release it has since retained Avison Young's Will Stern and Eli Barnes to “continue the leasing momentum” at the building. JLL’s Steve Burman represented FS Vector, and Transwestern’s Matt Levin represented SIOR. The spaces had asking rents of $73 to $76 per SF, according to Marx.
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TMG landed an 80K SF lease with The Atlantic Council at its 1401 L St. NW office building, CBRE announced Tuesday. The tenant is expanding its D.C. office by 36K SF in its move from 1030 15th St. NW. CBRE's Mark Klug, Carroll Cavanagh, Scott Frankel, Emily Eppolito and Dimitri Hajimihalis represented TMG, which recently completed a $20M renovation of the building and rebranded it as The Aleck.
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Direct Line Global LLC, a Silicon Valley-based firm that provides services to data center owners, has nearly tripled the size of its Loudoun County facility with a new 17K SF lease at St. John Properties' Ashburn Crossing, the landlord announced. The tenant plans to move buildings within the 80-acre business park from 21005 Ashburn Crossing Drive to 21220 Ashburn Crossing Drive, a 46K SF flex/R&D building that is under construction.
SALES
A penthouse condo unit at The Wharf's Amaris building has set a new record sales price for the D.C. market. Hoffman-Madison Waterfront sold the condo for $12.76M, deed records show. The developer touted it in a press release as a record-breaking deal, surpassing the city's previous high: the $11M sale of the penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Georgetown in early 2022.
The buyer was Anacostia River Management LLC, a Palo Alto-based entity with an unidentified person behind it. The Wall Street Journal reported the buyer lives on the West Coast and bought the unit to visit family in the D.C. area, but it didn't name the buyer.
Part of a Rafael Viñoly-designed building that delivered last year, the unit has 5,790 SF of interior space and 2,255 SF of outdoor space between a terrace and balcony. In addition to a private elevator and spiral staircase, the unit features four bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two half-bathrooms, and it comes with three parking spaces.
PERSONNEL
Top D.C. leasing broker Amy Bowser left JLL to join CBRE as an executive vice president, Bisnow first reported Monday. Bowser had worked with JLL since the early 2000s, and twice in the last three years she won the CREBA Award that recognizes the highest-performing office leasing broker in the District. Her high-profile assignments include managing office leasing at The Wharf.
Brooks Brown and Will Donohue, leasing brokers who worked with Bowser at JLL, also moved to CBRE as senior vice president and vice president, respectively. Brown had worked with Tishman Speyer for 12 years before joining JLL for the second time in 2019, and Donohue joined JLL in 2017 after graduating from college.
