Mark Richardson, Tom Hilley and Pete Prominski of Transwestern represented the building's developers, Manhattan-based Paramount Group Inc. and Washington, DC-based DRI Development Services LLC. Michael Boland of Boland Real Estate Services represented MBA and will be responsible for leasing the property.

When complete, 1331 L St. will be a class A, 10-story office building with 159,648 sf of office space, 11,072 sf of retail space and three levels of underground parking. John Mechem, a spokesman with MBA, tells GlobeSt.com that the association plans to have the exterior of the building LEED-certified. The building is expected to deliver in Q2 2008.

MBA will occupy four floors and rent out the rest, he says. Currently MBA occupies 50,000 sf at 1919 Pennsylvania Ave. and expects to occupy 65,000 sf in the new building. The move is not considered an expansion, though, he says. "Our members did two cost-benefits studies to see what would be the best option for our space needs. We decided that as we continue to grow, owning our own building is the best option."

The acquisition price was not disclosed. Recent comps, however, as well as the $66 per sf to $68 per sf rents that some firms are paying in the East End suggests 1331 L St. could have been sold at a premium, Tonya Ginter, research director with GVA Advantis, tells GlobeSt.com. "Investment sales have gone as high as $782 per sf in the East End," she says, referring to 1501 K St., which recently traded for $290 million, as reported in GlobeSt.com.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Erika Morphy

Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.