DoD is the sole occupant. The building, located at 2530 CrystalDr.--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 NorthernVirginia office portfolio that Beacon acquired from the BlackstoneGroup. The holdings come from what used to be Equity OfficeProperties Trust's DC portfolio, before the company was acquired byBlackstone last year in a $39-billion cash transaction.

Darian LeBlanc and Spencer Stouffer of Cassidy & PinkardColliers brokered the deal for the landlord. Cassidy & Pinkardreceived the mandate to manageBeacon's DC area holdings last April. At that time the portfoliowas 97% occupied. LeBlanc, the lead broker on the DoD lease, didnot get back to GlobeSt.com in time for deadline. Beacon declinedto comment for the article.

The Department of Defense Deal is one of a handful of hugetransactions that are bolstering--as the federal governmenttraditionally has--the DC market. In March, as another example, theDepartment of Justice signed a 521,000-sf lease for 145 N St., NE,a building is now under development by Bethesda, MD-basedStonebridge Carras for $250 million,now that it has secured the DoJ lease. Arlington, in particularhowever, has been the beneficiary of many of these renewals and/ornew deals. In May, the Department of Defense renewed a235,983-sf lease with Bethesda-based Lerner Enterprises at a classB office building in Arlington. Earlier this year, the US Patentand Trademark Office signed a 10-year lease to occupy168,468 sf at 2800 S. Randolph St. and the Social SecurityAdministration renewed 334,103-sf at 511 Leesburg Pike, which isowned by Vornado.