WASHINGTON, D.C. — BXP, a publicly traded office REIT that was previously known as Boston Properties Inc., has closed on its purchase of 725 12th Street, a 12-story office building in Washington, D.C.’s East End. The Boston-based firm acquired the 300,000-square-foot property for $34 million. The seller was not disclosed. BXP plans to demolish the office building and redevelop the site to make way for a new 320,000-square-foot, Class A office property. The REIT recently signed law firm McDermott Will & Emery to occupy approximately 150,000 square feet across the top five levels of the new office development. Lou Christopher, Jordan Brainard, Rob Copito and Clay Hammerstein of CBRE represented McDermott Will & Emery in the lease negotiations. Evan Behr of JLL represented the landlord. BXP expects to deliver the new office building in late 2028.
The multifamily market in the Washington, D.C., metro area has experienced meaningful shifts in 2024, marked by moderate demand, consistent construction and evolving investment patterns. As a major urban hub, D.C. continues to attract both local and out-of-state investors eager to tap into its growing potential. Out-of-state capital A key trend in the D.C. multifamily market is the strong influx of out-of-state capital. This year, 44 percent of buyers in our DMV (D.C., Maryland and Virginia) listings came from outside the region, drawn by the area’s stability and long-term growth potential. These out-of-market investors often pay a premium over local buyers, keeping deal volume and pricing competitive even amid rising interest rates. This steady inflow of external capital has reinforced the market’s resilience, underscoring the perceived value of D.C. multifamily assets. The demand from out-of-state investors has also provided stability to the market, helping to sustain price levels and liquidity despite macroeconomic headwinds. By bolstering interest in multifamily properties, this capital flow supports continued growth and positions D.C. as a desirable destination for long-term investment. As this trend persists, the D.C. metro area is likely to remain a focal point for diverse capital sources, ensuring strength and adaptability in its …
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Real Capital Solutions (RCS) has purchased an 11-story office building located at 1501 M St. NW in Washington, D.C.’s East End submarket for $29.3 million. Gerry Trainor of Transwestern brokered the transaction. The seller was not disclosed. Designed by Hartman-Cox Architects, the office building features 178,510 rentable square feet. The previous owner invested $13 million to upgrade the building’s lobby, restrooms, fitness center and a three-story “town hall” amenity space. RCS plans to add further improvements, including a spec suite program and the expansion of the town hall concept to the seventh and eighth floors.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Workbox plans to open a new 29,000-square-foot coworking space at an office building located at 1333 New Hampshire Ave. NW in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle district. The new space is set to open in February and will represent the company’s first location in the Mid-Atlantic and its 12th nationwide. Workbox also recently announced a coworking location in Pittsburgh that is set to open next month. Workbox – Dupont Circle will feature an entire floor of workspaces, lounges, conference rooms and amenity spaces. Additionally, the space will offer offices and suites for teams ranging in size from one to 40 individuals, all of which have flexible monthly rental agreements.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in November, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The figure is a strong rebound from October when the economy added 36,000 jobs, which is an upward revision by the BLS from its previous report of 12,000 jobs for the month. CNBC and other media outlets cite impacts from Hurricane Milton and the Boeing strike as reasons why the October total fell so far short of expectations. In addition to the October revision, the BLS revised September’s job total upward to 255,000, which brings net employment for the two months 56,000 jobs higher than previously reported. The November total also surpassed Dow Jones economists’ expectations of 214,000 jobs for the month, according to CNBC. The most actively expanding employment sectors in November included healthcare, which added 54,000 jobs, and leisure and hospitality, which added 53,000 jobs. The healthcare total is in line with the sector’s 59,000 average over the prior 12 months, but the leisure and hospitality figure more than doubled its 12-month average of 21,000 jobs, according to the BLS. Other sectors that added jobs in November include government (+33,000), transportation equipment manufacturing (+32,000) and social assistance (+19,000). …
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Milbank, an international law firm, has signed a 65,000-square-foot lease at 1101 New York Avenue, a 388,000-square-foot office building in Washington, D.C.’s East End. The office building is now 94 percent leased to firms including A&O Shearman, National Retail Federation, EY and Bloomberg. Dale Schlather, Malcolm Marshall and Alson Offutt of Cushman & Wakefield represented Milbank in the lease deal. Kyle Luby, Matt Pacinelli, John Klinke and Tim McCarty of Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, a partnership between Oxford Properties Group and Norges Bank Investment Management. Jim Potocki of Oxford Properties was also part of the leasing team at 1101 New York Avenue, which has 28,000 square feet of availability.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has increased the multifamily loan purchase caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for their 2025 production. The two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) will each have caps of $73 billion, or $146 billion combined, which is a 4 percent increase from the 2024 caps of $70 billion apiece. Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), says that the move to increase the cap is fitting due to recent moves by the Federal Reserve, which has twice reduced the federal funds rate in recent months. “The 4 percent increase in the multifamily loan purchase caps to $73 billion for each GSE is appropriate, given the slightly improved market conditions and lending activity that’s expected next year due to the slow decline in interest rates,” says Broeksmit. The FHFA will continue to exclude multifamily loans that finance workforce housing communities from the 2025 cap and require the GSEs to have at least 50 percent of their multifamily originations finance “mission-driven” affordable housing. The FHFA will continue to monitor the multifamily mortgage market and “maintains the ability to raise the caps further if necessary to support liquidity in the market.” If …
WASHINGTON, D.C. — PRP has obtained a $291 million CMBS loan for the refinancing of a national logistics portfolio totaling more than 4.5 million square feet. Eastdil Secured arranged the single-asset single-borrower (SASB) loan through JP Morgan. The portfolio spans five newly constructed buildings in the industrial markets of Houston; Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C.; St. Louis, Ill.; and Birmingham, Ala. The properties were fully leased at the time of financing including to tenants including a global online retailer, a home improvement company and power tool manufacturer, according to Washington, D.C.-based PRP.
Commercial property owners in the District of Columbia are crawling out of a post-pandemic fog and into a new, harsh reality where office building values have plummeted, but property tax assessments remain perplexingly high. Realization comes slowly Immediately following the pandemic, many office property owners adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward the volatility permeating the sector, clinging to hopes that the rising popularity of remote work and similar office worker practices would prove temporary. Once the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to combat generational inflation in 2022, however, hopes for a “return to normal” vanished and a grim reality set in. Recent transactions involving office properties in the District clearly indicate that investors recognize the negative impact these market forces have exerted on office building valuations and are now pricing those changes into the amounts they are willing to bid for acquisitions. These recent sales show office building values have declined by more than 50 percent from pre-pandemic levels. The other shoe began to drop on office market pricing in early 2023 with a rise in distress transactions, in which the office owner sells or forfeits the property to resolve some form of trouble, typically financial. These turnovers in ownership …
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations increased 59 percent in the third quarter of 2024 compared to a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations. The third-quarter volume also represents a 44 percent increase from the second quarter. There was a 510 percent year-over-year increase in the dollar volume of loans for healthcare properties, a 99 percent increase for hotel properties, 82 percent increase for retail properties, 57 percent increase for industrial properties and a 56 percent increase for multifamily properties. Office real estate originations decreased 3 percent from a year ago. Among investor types, the dollar volume of loans originated for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) increased by 260 percent year-over-year. There was a 69 percent increase for depository (i.e. bank) loans, a 62 percent increase for investor-driven lender loans, 31 percent increase in loans for life insurance companies and a 28 percent increase in loans from government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs, namely Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s head of commercial real estate research, says that lower interest rates due in part to the Federal Reserve’s 50-basis-point decrease in September were “a key driver” for the uptick …