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WASHINGTON, DC-Construction of the 250,000-sf office structure being developed at 455 Massachusetts Ave. NW has gotten a helping hand with the closing of a financing package valued at $71.9 million.
Corus Bankshares Inc.'s banking subsidiary Corus Bank provided the loan to joint venture partners Penzance Cos. and ASB Capital Management. In line with figures released last year in a report by DC's Downtown Business Improvement District, the entire class A office endeavor will cost $112 million to complete.
With a location midway between the Washington Convention Center and the MCI Center, the 455 Massachusetts Ave. project is being described by its developers as the gateway to the city's CBD at one end and Capitol Hill at the other. The property also carries the distinction of being the first commercial office development to be built in the Mount Vernon Triangle district in at least 25 years. The developers tapped Gensler to design the 12-story structure, which also will include 14,000 sf of ground-level retail space and four levels of underground parking to accommodate about 220 vehicles.
In addition to the strong dynamics of the Washington, DC office market--consistently low vacancy rates and high rents--the JV partnership and the project itself contributed to the facilitation of the transaction. "The strengths of the two partners make this a very attractive lending opportunity for Corus Bank," says David Ploger, first vice president of the Chicago-based Corus. "We were able to offer a competitive advance rate and loan pricing on a non-recourse basis while working through several complexities in the transaction. The interest in the building from prospective tenants confirms our enthusiasm for the project." Jones Lang LaSalle is in charge of office preleasing while the Rappaport Cos. is responsible for retail space preleasing.
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