District of Columbia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mitsui Fudosan America (MFA) has signed a partnership agreement with Industrious, a flexible workplace company, for the use of 40,653 square feet of space at The Homer Building, an office building located at 601 13th St. NW in Washington, D.C. Located on the 12th floor, the space will feature private offices and a total of over 500 seats. The Industrious space at The Homer is scheduled to open in early 2023. Located atop Metro Center Station in D.C.’s East End neighborhood, The Homer Building features a rooftop deck, modernized elevator mechanicals and cabs, a four-level parking garage, full-service fitness center and a Panera Bread and coffee shop on the ground level.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Standard Real Estate Investments LP, a minority-owned national real estate investment and development firm with offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, has purchased the Senator Square and East River Park shopping centers in northeast Washington D.C. The centers span 13 acres and are entitled and programmed for a $650 million mixed-use redevelopment that will bring 1,500 residential units, including approximately 300 affordable housing units, and 120,000 square feet of retail space to D.C.’s Northeast Heights district. National Housing Trust is developing 110 of the project’s 300 affordable housing units in a standalone building. The Black Economic Development Fund, which is managed by affiliates of the Local Initiatives Support Corp., and Forbright Bank provided construction financing for the development. The site is located within walking distance of the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station and near a build-to-suit office project that Trammell Crow Co. is developing for the District of Columbia’s Department of General Services. The construction timeline for the development was not disclosed.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Foulger-Pratt has broken ground on Paxton, an affordable housing development located at the intersection of Benning Road and 16th Street in northeast Washington, D.C.’s Kingman Park district. The $101 million project will feature eight studio, 87 one-bedroom, 16 two-bedroom and 37 three-bedroom rental apartments upon completion, which is set for April 2024. A majority (133 units) will be reserved for households earning at or below 50 percent of the area median income (AMI). The remaining will be reserved for households earning at or below 30 percent of AMI and are designated as “permanent supportive housing.” All residents will have access to services through Hope Multiplied, a locally based nonprofit providing community development, health-and-wellness and socio-economic programs. Residents in the permanent supportive housing units will receive support services through Community of Hope, a local organization working to end family homelessness and improve health. Financing partners for Paxton include the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency, which issued $46.9 million in tax exempt bonds and underwrote $42 million in D.C. and federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) equity, in addition to a $29 million Housing Production Trust Fund loan from the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development. …

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP has signed a 21,065-square-foot office lease at 1601 K St. in Washington, D.C. The firm will occupy the entire third floor of the 11-story office building. The D.C. space will serve as the second domestic location for the law firm, which has offices in New York and London. Kyle Luby, Andy Eichberg and Matt Pacinelli of Stream Realty Partners represented the unnamed landlord in the transaction. Lou Christopher, Asher Inman, Jordan Brainard O’Neil, Lewis Miller, Andrew Sussman and Munish Viralam of CBRE represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Stream also provides property management and construction management services for building ownership, which plans to debut two new speculative suites next year.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Total U.S. nonfarm payroll employment rose by 263,000 in September, and the unemployment rate contracted 20 basis points to 3.5 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Monthly job growth has averaged 420,000 year-to-date in 2022, compared with 562,000 per month in 2021. The September performance fell narrowly short of the Dow Jones estimate of 275,000 but exceeded expectations for the unemployment rate, which the economists expected to remain at 3.7 percent, according to CNBC. Leisure and hospitality added 83,000 jobs in September, which is on par with the average monthly job gain over the first eight months of the year. Other notable gains were in the healthcare sector (+60,000), professional and business services (+46,000), manufacturing (+22,000) and construction (+19,000). Additionally, the BLS revised the employment gains for July upward by 11,000 to 537,000; the August figure was unchanged at 315,000. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, says the job gains in September for the office-using sectors were encouraging, but he emphasizes that the lack of office workers in downtown districts will continue to have a ripple effect on other economic sectors. “The traditional office-using jobs in the professional business …

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Enterprise Community Development Inc., an affiliate of Enterprise Community Partners, has closed on its $25.7 million purchase of Skyland Apartments, a 224-unit community in the Randle Heights neighborhood of Southeast Washington, D.C. Originally built in 1939, the “naturally occurring affordable housing” (NOAH) community comprises one- and two-bedroom duplexes and one-bedroom flats, as well as 10,000 square feet of commercial space. Enterprise Community Development’s acquisition from W.C. Smith was executed through the District of Columbia’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which the residents began in 2019 before being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. EagleBank and Capital Impact Partners provided acquisition financing. Winn Management is currently serving as property manager for Skyland Apartments. Enterprise Community Development will focus on the property’s redevelopment and rehabilitation efforts in collaboration with residents to keep rents affordable.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — A partnership between Lowe, FLGA and Davenport Group has secured a 99-year ground lease from Howard University to construct a new residential tower on two sites in Washington, D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood currently being used as student parking lots. The 1.9-acre assemblage at 2251 Sherman Ave. and 2047 9th St. NW will be converted into a 525,000-square-foot, 10-story tower housing up to 500 residences, 27,000 square feet of commercial space and an underground parking garage. The partnership is undertaking the development with USAA Real Estate. JLL arranged an undisclosed amount of bridge financing for the land transaction through Eagle Bank. Construction is anticipated to commence in fall 2023. The project is the latest transaction by Howard University to densify its campus while maintaining long-term control of its real estate. Plans for the new housing include units ranging from studios to larger two-bedroom with den floor plans. Approximately 40 units will be designated as affordable housing, with the potential to increase that number to 60 units. Planned amenities include a club room, fitness center and rooftop patio and pool. The unnamed project is also set to include a 25-foot-wide public plaza fronting the future extension of W Street that …

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group has negotiated the sale of Mandarin Oriental, Washington D.C., a luxury hotel in the city’s southwest district that spans nine stories and 373 rooms. The sales price was not disclosed. The buyer, London-based private equity real estate manager Henderson Park, has rebranded the hotel as Salamander Washington D.C. under the management of Middleburg, Va.-based Salamander Hotels & Resorts. Gilda Perez-Alvarado, Jeffrey Davis and Stephany Chen of JLL represented the seller, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group International Ltd., in the transaction. Mark Fisher of JLL arranged an undisclosed amount of acquisition financing on behalf of Henderson Park. Built in 2004 and recently renovated, the hotel overlooks the Tidal Basin and the Washington Channel. Nearby attractions include the National Mall, Washington Monument, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Boston Properties Inc. (NYSE: BXP) has sold 601 Massachusetts Avenue, an approximately 480,000-square-foot office building in Washington, D.C., for $531 million. The buyer was not disclosed, but the Washington Business Journal reports that it was an affiliate of Mori Trust Co., a real estate development and investment firm based in Tokyo. Boston Properties originally developed the 11-story property in 2015. The firm will continue to provide property management services at 601 Massachusetts, which was 98 percent leased at the time of sale. 601 Massachusetts Avenue is situated in Washington, D.C.’s Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood. Nearby attractions include the White House, Capital One Arena, Metro stations and the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. According to online property listings, the property includes a nine-story glass atrium, onsite fitness center, roof terrace and retail space leased to RPM Italian, Soul Cycle and lunch restaurant Devon & Blakely. Boston Properties structured the disposition as part of a reverse like-kind exchange under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code with its $730 million acquisition in May of Madison Centre, a 37-story office tower in Seattle. “This disposition demonstrates continued investor demand for premier, well-leased office properties,” says Owen Thomas, chairman and CEO …

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Total U.S. nonfarm payroll employment rose by 315,000 in August, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.7 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). While in line with Dow Jones economist estimates of 318,000 jobs, August represents the second-lowest monthly gain since April 2021, according to CNBC. Additionally, the 20-basis-point increase in the unemployment rate is the first monthly hike this year. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised down by 105,000 jobs, from 398,000 to 293,000, and the change for July was revised down by 2,000, from 528,000 to 526,000, according to the BLS. Professional and business services led all employment sectors in hiring with 68,000 added jobs in August. Healthcare employment rose by 48,000, the retail sector added 44,000 jobs, manufacturing added 22,000 and financial activities added 17,000 jobs. Employment rose in the leisure and hospitality sector by 31,000, which is down significantly from its monthly average in 2022 of 90,000 jobs.

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