Uptown: Deal Central?

The DC office investment sales bonanza is clearly cooling off. Yet in small pockets in Upper Northwest, submarkets where little product usually hits the market, one asset has just become available (4201 Connecticut Ave in Van Ness, which we'll get to in a moment), while another, Georgetown Plaza in Glover Park, is currently under contract. Cushman & Wakefield's Steve Gichner and Eric Berkman are repping owner Carr Properties in the Georgetown Plaza sale, and sources tell us the deal will close in June and that the new, undisclosed owner will not redevelop the building into residential, though an additional 59k SF of FAR is offered with the building.

As for 4201 Connecticut in Van Ness, Transwestern's Gerry Trainor (who's marketing the property with colleagues Jim Cardellicchio, Wesley Machowsky and Clifton McCrory) tells us it's incredibly rare for something in that submarket to be offered for sale, since most buildings are owned by users like embassies and academic groups. But the 70k SF building benefits from a recent full-scale renovation as well as a prime location (within minutes of both downtown DC and downtown Bethesda—perfect for the indecisive socialite) that should allow it to fetch $27M to $30M, which is well below replacement costs, he says. The historically high occupancy (95%) and below-market rents should also woo potential buyers, which have included institutional advisors as well as high-net-worth investors.