Law Firm Preleases 70% of New 320,000-SF Office Building

WASHINGTON, DC-All signatures are in place on the 15-year lease agreement for DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP. The law firm has officially committed to 230,000 sf of office space at a new 320,000-sf building to be developed by Boston Properties. The closing of the deal, perhaps the largest private-sector lease of the year, comes 10 months after the firm signed a letter of intent for the space. Construction of the building is expected to get under way this summer, and DLA Piper will relocate from its existing 165,000-sf home at 1200 19th St. soon after the building reaches completion in the fall of 2007–and right after the firm’s lease expires on its current locale.

DLA Piper’s new digs will be at 509 9th St. in a 10-story structure on a three-quarter-acre parcel that had been the site of a parking lot. The building will be a trophy property on one of the last undeveloped plots of land in the District’s Penn Quarter/East End.

While the spot is a highly coveted one, DLA Piper did its research before settling on the property. “We looked around at the relatively limited number of opportunities there are for larger tenants in the marketplace,” DLA Piper partner Jay Epstein tells GlobeSt.com. After narrowing the search down to a half-dozen properties–one of which was Waterview, the one-million-sf mixed-use property in Arlington, VA that the company missed out on when Corporate Executive Board Co. decided to lease the entire 620,000-sf office segment–the firm decided the Boston Properties building was, after all, the best option. “Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that we wanted to stay Downtown,” explains Epstein. “With a growing emphasis on our federal affairs and legislative practice, the proximity that the site has to Capitol Hill offered many benefits.”