Turnbridge JV Sells DC Office Portfolio for $220M

A joint venture between Turnbridge Equities and Fundamental Advisors LP has completed the disposition of a five-property office portfolio totaling 860,000 square feet throughout the Washington, D.C. metro for $220 million or $255.81 per square foot. GI Partners acquired the assets on behalf of its Essential Tech + Science Fund. Cushman & Wakefield represented the sellers in the transaction.

In the first half of the year, 57 office properties totaling 7.9 million square feet changed hands across the metro, CommercialEdge data shows. The transactions had an average sale price of $291.26 per square foot.

Notable deals included the $375.4 million acquisition of the 520,180-square-foot Patrick Henry Building at 601 D St. NW in the central business district of Washington, D.C. Tishman Speyer sold the 1973-built office mid-rise to Nuveen Real Estate in March.

In early April, Post Brothers paid $228 million to JBG SMITH for Universal North and South, a pair of Washington, D.C., office buildings. Arranged by Newmark, the 659,459-square-foot acquisition marked the buyer’s entrance into the metro.

A cybersecurity and defense infrastructure portfolio

GI Partners’ acquisition includes five properties that were completed between 1986 and 2000:

• Parkway Square, totaling 205,074 square feet at 460 Herndon Parkway in Herndon, Va.
• The 84,652-square-foot 14700 Lee Road in Chantilly, Va.
• One Steeplechase, encompassing 112,623 square feet at 21700 Atlantic Blvd., in Sterling, Va.
• Fair Lakes II, totaling 184,414 square feet at 12450 Fair Lakes Circle in Fairfax, Va.
• WillowWood Plaza III and IV, encompassing 273,713 square feet at 10302 and 10304 Eaton Place in Fairfax, Va.

Located in one of the top markets for cybersecurity and defense technology employment, the properties were 96 percent leased at the time of sale to defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp., General Dynamics Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.

A Boeing subsidiary is also on one of the assets’ tenant roster. Liquid Robotics recently expanded its lease to occupy the entire building at 460 Herndon Parkway.

Office vacancy reached 14.5 percent across the Washington, D.C., metro as of June, according to a recent CommercialEdge report. While slightly increased month-over-month, the value marked a 120-basis-point drop year-over-year, being also below the national average of 15.2 percent.