WASHINGTON, DC-Anyone feeling discouraged about the pace of recovery in the local commercial real estate market should do some back-of-the-envelope math on First Potomac’s latest acquisition. The REIT snapped up 1211 Connecticut Ave., a fully leased, eight-story, 137,754-square-foot office building for $49.5 million, or approximately $359 per square foot, from Harbor Group International, which acquired the building a year-and-a-half ago for $35.2 million, or approximately $290 per square foot.

“Harbor acquired 1211 Connecticut during a very depressed period in the market,” First Potomac chief investment officer Nicholas Smith tells GlobeSt.com. “They did very well for themselves with this sale.” The building, located in the Golden Triangle submarket, was originally constructed in 1967 and subsequently renovated in 1998 and 2008. It is a building that Smith says he knows first hand--his father maintained an office in it for years. 

First Potomac plans to renovate the property’s fa

NOT FOR REPRINT

© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation 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.