(Read more on the debt and equity markets.)
BOWIE, MD-JP Morgan Asset Management-Real Estate has acquired majority ownership of green building here. Called Bowie Corporate Center, the 131,000-sf office was developed by Gaithersburg, MD-based Buchanan Partners and delivered in Spring 2007, as reported earlier in GlobeSt.com. JP Morgan provided $13.4 million in equity to become majority owner, with Buchanan Partners maintaining a minority interest in the building. The company declined to breakdown the ownership percentage.
At the same time, the company has recapitalized its construction financing for the building, with $26 million construction loan provided by Bank of America. Permanent financing will be put in place once the building is fully leased. Wendy Weiss, project manager, for Bowie Corporate Center tells GlobeSt.com that the building is currently 20% occupied, with the firm in discussion currently with a potentially large tenant.
One possible lure for potential tenants is the building's recently awarded Gold certification within the US Green Building Council's Core and Shell program, which has been designed specifically for new and speculative commercial building construction. Few other buildings in the US have this designation because the standards are so new, Weiss says. "We were one of the participants in the pilot program." Usgbc has only now recently the full version of the standard, she adds.
Located at 4321 Collington Rd., the building's green features include a heating and cooling system--including a under-floor air distribution system--that reduces building energy use by 30%. Exterior sun louvers and low-E tinted glass windows reduce solar heat load while interior light louvers reflect daylight through clear glazing into the building's interior.
CB Richard Ellis, which has a goal of becoming "carbon neutral" itself by 2010--is the leasing agent for the building. Weiss is hesitant to pin the leasing efforts now underway for the building strictly on its green bona fides. "Frankly we haven't seen that much demand for green buildings yet. We are hoping that will change."
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
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 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.
