Southern Railway Building Sells for $85M

WASHINGTON, DC-The historic structure at 1500 K St. known as the Southern Railway Building becomes the property of a Grosvenor USA-sponsored partnership in a deal valued at an estimated $85 million. TIAA Realty Inc., a division of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund, sold the 243,000-sf office property, which was originally built in 1928 to serve as the railway company’s headquarters. According to district tax records, the building has a 2003 assessed value of $51 million.

For its part, Grosvenor considers its latest District acquisition a veritable coup and something worth holding on to. “It was a very competitive process but we were able to finally get ourselves identified as the buyer,” Grosvenor spokesperson Andrew Galbraith tells GlobeSt.com. Reportedly, JP Morgan and several other pension funds were in the running for the property. “We spent a lot of time looking at the property and we have a relationship with TIAA that goes back about 30 years.”