DoD is the sole occupant. The building, located at 2530 Crystal Dr.--otherwise known as the Taylor Building--is a 12-story, 547,930-sf office that was part of a 5.3-million-sf DC and Northern Virginia office portfolio that Beacon acquired from the Blackstone Group. The holdings come from what used to be Equity Office Properties Trust's DC portfolio, before the company was acquired by Blackstone last year in a $39-billion cash transaction.

Darian LeBlanc and Spencer Stouffer of Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers brokered the deal for the landlord. Cassidy & Pinkard received the mandate to manage Beacon's DC area holdings last April. At that time the portfolio was 97% occupied. LeBlanc, the lead broker on the DoD lease, did not get back to GlobeSt.com in time for deadline. Beacon declined to comment for the article.

The Department of Defense Deal is one of a handful of huge transactions that are bolstering--as the federal government traditionally has--the DC market. In March, as another example, the Department of Justice signed a 521,000-sf lease for 145 N St., NE, a building is now under development by Bethesda, MD-based Stonebridge Carras for $250 million, now that it has secured the DoJ lease. Arlington, in particular however, has been the beneficiary of many of these renewals and/or new deals. In May, the Department of Defense renewed a 235,983-sf lease with Bethesda-based Lerner Enterprises at a class B office building in Arlington. Earlier this year, the US Patent and Trademark Office signed a 10-year lease to occupy 168,468 sf at 2800 S. Randolph St. and the Social Security Administration renewed 334,103-sf at 511 Leesburg Pike, which is owned by Vornado.