BETHESDA, MD—Too bad, any buyers out there that might have wanted to scoop up a Bethesda office at a competitive price. You missed your chance now that MRP Realty secured refinancing for Montgomery Tower at Bethesda Crossing. As we reported earlier this week, MRP Realty and Rockpoint Group secured a $103.5 million bank loan at excellent, albeit unnamed, terms. According to DTZ broker John Campanella, the refi priced at terms a CBD office might have gotten.

We caught up with Jackson Prentice, senior vice president and director of Portfolio Management at MRP Realty to find out what the company's plans are for the property.

This building, as a refresher, is the third tower that MRP didn't sell to JP Morgan Asset Management earlier this year when Bethesda Crossing traded.

Bethesda Crossing consists of three buildings totaling 715,000 square feet. MRP Realty and Rockpoint Group purchased the property in January 2013, paying nearly $205 million, and invested nearly $30 million in renovations.

It was interesting that JP Morgan Asset Management didn't buy Montgomery Tower, or the north tower as it is sometimes called. One speculated reason is that the core fund through which it purchased the properties could not absorb all three assets.

The renovations MRP had made in the years it has owned the property, though, repositioned the buildings enough to start securing higher rents when the two other towers sold, Prentice said.

"They were renting in the $32 to $35 per square foot range when we acquired them. Now they are renting at north of $40 per square foot in all three towers. Montgomery Tower appraised very well [Prentice declined to say how much] and the leasing velocity has been off the charts."

Prentice said that after the sale of the two properties MRP had a significant pay down of the loan covering all three buildings, making it possible to refinance. The refinancing took the pressure off the company to sell the building "possibly in haste," he says.

"Now we have some breathing room to finish the leasing."

There are some rollovers coming up and some available space right now at the north tower, he says, but the building is about 95% leased.

Prentice says it is not clear when the north tower might go back on the market. "We are still under the original underwriting of the hold period. A lot will depend on the confluence of our short-term leasing success and then keeping a close eye on the capital markets and cap rates."