Finmarc Management, Inc. is planning to play more offense in 2025, as the investment management firm is eyeing to make roughly $200 million in commercial acquisitions, focusing on the office and retail sectors in the Northeast.
Particularly, the Bethesda, Maryland-based firm will target those assets close to its local headquarters. This includes not only the state of Maryland but the nearby greater Washington D.C. and Virginia markets. Finmarc hopes to add more than 1.3 million square feet of office and retail properties to its portfolio.
While Neil Markus, principal of the company, noted the floodgates in the capital markets have not yet opened, he is seeing "increased appetite among sellers and their lenders to dispose of assets."
Recommended For You
“The commercial office submarkets in and around the greater District of Columbia area are steadily shrinking due to building conversions to residential uses, but we are confident that the recent return-to-work agenda will have a substantial impact on leasing and create new demand for office space regionally,” Markus said in a statement.
The intentions build on Finmarc's activity in 2024, when it bought a nearly 500,000-square-foot office property, the Trinity Centre, for $39 million in Northern Virginia. Plus, the company acquired a 620,000-square-foot office portfolio in Northern Virginia for $51 million, and a 185,000-square-foot shopping plaza for $30 million in Frederick, Maryland.
"That success provides important momentum heading into the new year,” Markus said regarding the offense played last year.
“Sellers in various asset classes recognize that we are serious about executing additional acquisitions now and in the future.”
Also, Finmarc believes it's in a good position to act on "emerging opportunities" across the U.S. and not just solely the local markets around Maryland.
While office has been recovering from the lows of the pandemic, a recent report from CommercialEdge revealed that average prices dropped by 11 percent to $174 per square foot in 2024. The dip was led by Class A or A+ property sales, which retreated 22%, while Class B properties slipped just 3% year-over-year.
Meanwhile, the retail sector finished off 2024 on a high note. Investments in the asset class hit $21.2 billion during the second half, representing a 36 percent surge from the first six months of the year, according to a report from JLL. The CRE firm predicts 2025 could even be a bigger year for retail thanks to more potential rate cuts, and both low new supply and vacancy levels.
© 2025 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.
